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THE GRATER 


OB 

VULCAN’S PEAK 


A TAIE OF THE PACIFIO 


By J. FENIMORE COOPER 


Thus arise 

Races of living things, glorious in strength, 
And perish, as the quickening breath of (jk>d 
Fills them, or is withdrawn.— Bryant 


BOSTON: 

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY. 
CTlie Kiberfiiitie Prccc, (IDambritrffe* 

1880. 



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PREFACE. 


I 

The reader of this book will very naturally be disposed 
to ask the question, why the geographies, histories, and 
I other works of a similar character, have never made any 
mention of the regions and events that compose its subject. 
The answer is obvious enough, and ought to satisfy every 
mind, however “ inquiring.” »The fact is, that the authors 
of the different works to which there is any allusion, most 
probably never heard there were any such places as the 
Reef, Rancocus Island, Vulcan’s Peak, the Crater, and the 
other islands of which so much is said in our pages. In 
other words, they knew nothing about them. 

We shall very freely admit that, under ordinary circum- 
stances, it would be primd facie evidence against the exist- 
ence of any spot on the face of this earth, that the geogra- 
phies took no notice of it. It will be remembered, however, 
that the time was, and that only three centuries and a half 
since, when the geographies did not contain a syllable about 
the whole of the American continent ; that it is not a cent- 
ury since they began to describe New Zealand, New Hol- 
land, Tahiti, Oahu, and a vast number of other places, that 
are now constantly alluded to, even in the daily journals. 
Very little is said in the largest geographies, of Japan, for 
instance; and it may be questioned if they might not just as 
well be altogether silent on the subject, as for any accurate 
information they do convey. In a word, much as is now 
known cf the globe, a gi’eat deal still remains to be told. 


VI 


PREFACE. 


and we do not see why the “ inquiring mind ” should not 
seek for information in our pages, as well as in some that 
are ushered in to public notice by a flourish of literary trum- 
pets, that are blown by presidents, vice-presidents, and secre- 
taries of various learned bodies. 

One thing we shall ever maintain, and that in the face of 
all who may be disposed to underrate the . value of our 
labors, which is this ; — there is not a word in these vol- 
umes which we now lay before the reader, as grave matter 
of fact, that is not entitled to the most implicit credit. We 
scorn deception. Lest, however, some cavillers may be 
found, we will present a few of those reasons which occur to 
our mind, on the spur of the moment, as tending to show 
that everything related here might be just as true as Cook’s 
voyages themselves. In the flrst place, this earth is large, 
and has sufficient surface to contain, not only all the islands 
mentioned in our pages, but a great many more. Something 
is established when the possibility of any hypothetical point 
is placed beyond dispute. Then, not one half as much was 
known of the islands of the Pacific, at the close of the last, 
and at the commencement of the present century, as is known 
to-day. In such a dearth of precise information, it may 
very well have happened that many things occurred touch- 
ing which we have not said even one word. Again, it should 
never be forgotten that generations were born, lived their 
time, died, and have been forgotten, among those remote 
groups, about which no civilized man ever has, or ever will 
hear anything. If such be admitted to be the facts, why 
may not all that is here related have happened, and equally 
escape the knowledge of the rest of the civilized world ? 
During the wars of the French revolution, trifling events 
attracted but little of the general attention, and we are not 
to think of interests of this nature, in that day, as one would 
think of them now. 

Whatever may be thought of the authenticity of its inci- 
dents, we hope this book will be found not to be totally 
without a moral. Truth is not absolutely necessary to the 


PREFACE. 


vii 


illustration of a principle, the imaginary sometimes doing 
that office quite as effectually as the actual. 

The reader may next wish to know why the wonderful 
events related in these volumes have so long been hidden 
from the world. In answer to this we would ask if any one 
can tell how many thousands of years the waters have tum- 
bled down the cliffs at Niagara, or why it was that civilized 
men heard of the existence of this wonderful cataract so 
lately as only three centuries since. The fact is, there must 
be a beginning to everything ; and now there is a beginning 
to the world’s knowing the history ol Vulcan’s Peak, and 
the Crater. Lest the reader, however, should feel disposed 
to reproach the past age with having been negligent in its 
collection of historical and geological incidents, we would 
again remind him of the magnitude of the events that so 
naturally occupied its attention. It is scarcely possible, for 
instance, for one who did not live forty years ago to have 
any notion how completely the world was engaged in won- 
dering at Napoleon and his marvelous career, which last* 
contained even more extraordinary features than anything 
related here, though certainly of a very different character. 
All wondering, for near a quarter of a century, was monop- 
olized by the French Revolution and it consequences. 

There are a few explanations, however, which are of a 
very humble nature compared with the principal events of 
our history, but which may as well be given here. The 
Woolston family still exists in Pennsylvania, and that, by 
the way, is something towards corroborating the truth of our 
narrative. Its most distinguished member is recently dead 
and his journal has been the authority for most of the truths 
here related. He died at a good old age, having seen his 
three-score years and ten, leaving behind him, in addition to 
a very ample estate, not only a good character, which means 
neither more nor less than what “ the neighbors,” amid 
their ignorance, envy, love of detraction, jealousy, and other 
similar qualities, might think proper to say of him, but the 
odor of a well-spent life, in which he struggled hard to live 


viii 


PREFACE. 


more in favor with God, than in favor with man. It was ! 
remarked in him, for the last forty years of his life, or after 
his return to Bucks, that he regarded all popular demon- 
strations with distaste, and, as some of his enemies pretended, ; 
with contempt. Nevertheless, he strictly acquitted himself 
of all his public duties, and never neglected to vote. It is i 
believed that his hopes for the ftiture, meaning in a social 
and earthly sense, were not very vivid, and he was often 
heard to repeat that warning text of Scripture which tells 
us “ Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he 
fall.” 

The faithful and once lovely partner of this principal 
personage of our history is also dead. It would seem that 
it was not intended they should be long asunder. But their 
time was come, and they might almost be said to have de- 
parted in company. The same is true of Friends Robert 
and Martha, who have also filled their time, and gone hence, 
it is to be hoped to a better world. Some few of the 
younger persons of our drama still exist, but it has been re- 
marked of them, that they avoid conversing of the events of 
their younger days. Youth is the season of hope, and hope 
disappointed has little to induce us to dwell on its deceptive 
pictures. 

If those who now live in this republic, can see any 
grounds for a timely warning in the events here recorded, 
it may happen that the mercy of a divine Creator may still 
preserve that which he has hitherto cherished and pro- 
tected. 

It remains only to say that we have endeavored to imi- 
tate the simplicity of Captain Woolston’s journal, in writ- 
ing this book, and should any homeliness of style be discov- 
ered, we trust it will be imputed to that circumstance. 


INTEODTJCTION. 


Bt SUSAN FENIMOEE COOPER. 


After the publication of “ Afloat and Ashore ” several 
years passed, during which the pen of the author was oc- 
cupied with scenes connected with the land. It was not 
until 1847 that another tale of the sea appeared. This was 
“ The Crater, or Vulcan’s Peak,” a tale of the Pacific. 


a 




“ Thus arise 

Kaces of living things, glorious in strength, 

< And perish, as the quickening breath of God 
Fills them, oris withdrawn.” 


The motto, from a poem of Mr. Bryant, reveals the idea, 
the scene of the narrative, as its name implies, lying on an 
unknown volcanic island amid the more remote solitudes of 
the Pacific Ocean. The earliest date of the tale is very 
nearly that of Miles Wallingford, 1793 ; the opening scenes, 
however, are not laid on the picturesque Hudson, but on the 
tame shores of the lower Delaware. Home ground is al- 
most immediately left behind. Mark Woolston, the prin- 
cipal character, goes to sea in a Chinaman, the Rancocus, 
a fine Philadelphia-built ship — the, best ships in Americg^^^ 
coming at that period from the Philadelphia yards. After^ 
a couple of voyages the youth returns, marries, sails again 
in the Rancocus as first mate, bound for certain sandal- 
wood Islands of the Pacific, thence for Canton to dispose 
of the cargo. The Rancocus was the first craft the author 
carried into the Pacific, and very singular and original 
were her adventures. There came a night, intensely dark 
and misty, when the good ship in mid-ocean is suddenly 


X 


INTRODUCTION. 


discovered to be> m the midst of breakers, in a latitude 
where no breakers were supposed to exist, a fact accounted 
for by the imperfect knowledge of the remote Pacific in 
the last century. Breakers heard ahead, breakers heard 
abeam, and at length white water gleaming dimly under 
the very bows of the ship. There, in a narrow channel of 
a mysterious reef, the Rancocus is stranded on the rocks. 
Captain, second mate, seamen, and boats are washed over- 
board or driven hopelessly to sea by the storm rolling over 
the reef. Mark Woolston and one man are left alone in the 
stranded ship. 

In this desperate situation, more desolate, even, than that 
of Crusoe, months, aye, years, pass over, bringing with them, 
however, in gradual succession, many changes. The naked 
reef proves to be of volcanic origin, and not of coral, as 
was first supposed ; an extinct volcano is the centre of the 
desolate region ; a barren mound, the crater, is discovered. 
The good ship has not been wrecked, but stranded in a nar- 
row channel of the reef, amid the breakers. Though closely 
imprisoned on all sides, her hull has not been materially in- 
jured; much of a mixed cargo prepared for trading with 
the islands of the Pacific is still in good condition and 
turned to account. A goat, several hogs, and some poultry, 
are tui-ned adrift on the reef, where they feed at first on 
fish and seaweed. By careful husbandry, collecting ashes 
from the crater, seaweed, and guano, and a small deposit of 
loam on one of the islets, the elements of a soil are brought 
together with much toil and patience ; seeds found in the 
ship are planted in tiny hills, the showers of the rainy season 
and a tropical sun bringing them rapidly forward. These 
first steps of civilization, collecting the soil by the handful, 
the planting and tilling in the heart of the desolate crater, 
are carefully followed in detail, and have a simple interest of 
their own. They are all told in a quiet matter-of-fact way 
which gives them an air of truthful reality. 

In a garden the author felt almost as much at home as on 
shqjboard. In his own garden he took very great pleasure, 


INTRODUCTION. 


XI 


passing hours at a time there during the summer months, 
directing and superintending the work with his usual lively 
interest in whatever he undertook. It was his great delight 
to watch the growth of the different plants, day by day. 
His hot-beds were always among the earliest in the village, 
and great was his satisfaction when he could proclaim in 
early spring days to this or that friend, while strolling in 
the main street, the important fact that radishes or spinach 
were fit for the table, the tomatoes and melons growing rap- 
idly. On these garden matters many were the communica- 
tions which passed between himself and his friend and 
constant companion. Judge Nelson of the Supreme Court, 
recently deceased, after half a century of upright service 
on the Bench, and so deeply regretted by the whole country. 
Many were their conversations on legal and political ques- 
tions, and, by way of interlude, many were the visits the 
friends paid to the author’s hot-beds or melon-hills. Ah, 
those muskmelons ! What an important place they filled in 
the village garden ! How carefully they were watched, how 
closely they were examined, their color, shape, size, fra- 
grance studied with the zest of a connoisseur. He usually 
gathered them himself, and was very fastidious regarding 
their flavor. When a successful vine had produced the fruit 
desired, perfect in its kind, the seed was carefully preserved 
and labeled, fruit and seed being usually shared with more 
than one friend. Only a short time since a little package of 
muskmelon seed, more than thirty years old, was accident- 
ally found in an old envelope, labeled in the author’s hand- 
writing : “ August 7, 1847, very fine indeed.” ^ It must be 
frankly confessed that the author was not a little proud of 
his melons, their early growth, and fine flavor. And pride, 
we are told, must have a fall. It chanced one spring that 
an especial effort was made to bring some very superior 
melon-seed forward unusually early. A box was prepared 
and placed in the southern vestibule of the house, a warm 
and light exposure. Very soon, much sooner than was ex- 
1 The year 1847 was that in which The Crater was written. 


XU 


INTEODUCTIOX. 


pected, tiny green points appeared, and ere long neatly 
formed leaflets showed themselves. The fact was imme- 
diately communicated to Judge Nelson ; and those two fine, 
venerable heads were soon to be seen bending together in 
close scrutiny over the young plants, and a pleasant sight it 
was, the eager interest of the author, the genial sympathy 
of the judge. The leaves were coming forward so rapidly 
that it was held to be certain that the fruit must ripen sev- 
eral weeks earlier than usual, a fact mentioned with some 
exultation to several neighbors. A brilliant triumph was 
expected. Alas, there was disappointment in store. Nei- 
ther the legal dignitary nor the author was a botanist. A 
day or two more proved that the friends, instead of studying 
young melon plants, had been tenderly nursing the first 
leaves of that vagabond weed, the wild cucumber vine. But 
it was not only the melons in which the author was inter- 
ested ; other fruits, and the choice vegetables, had their turn. 
In his boyhood the plums grown in the same grounds had 
been celebrated peaches and grapes had also occasionally 
ripened. These were all tried again, but with little success. 
The curculio killed the plums ; peaches and grapes only rip- 
ened in favorable seasons. The occasional frosts of the 
Highland climate generally prevented their coming to per 
feet maturity in the open air. With vegetables he was very 
successful, having been the first to introduce several of the 
choicer kinds to the village gardens, such as egg-plants, okra, 
and Brussels sprouts. The first and choicest, whether fruit 
or vegetable, was usually gathered by himself, and reserved 
as a little offering for Mrs. Cooper, whether radish, pepper- 
grass, strawberry, raspberry, or melon, placed by him near 
her plate at table. Later in the season, as the yield became 
more plentiful, he took great pleasure in carrying with his 
own hands baskets of fruit or choice vegetables to different 
friends and neighbors. During one summer there was an 
old Jack tar, a former shipmate of his own in early youth, 
who passed several mouths at the house, at a time when he 
was partially lame, and -many were the baskets of fruit or 


INTRODUCTION. 


Xill 


early vegetables that the author and his comrade, Ned Mey- 
ers, carried about the village to different homes. There are 
those now living who remember seeing the two moving to 
and fro with their baskets. 

The importance given to the melons on 'the Pacific reef 
may be thus naturally accounted for. It was the reflection 
of a partiality of the author. And the same remark would 
apply to the domestic animals which are introduced into 
the book ; the poultry, the pigs, the cows, Ivitty, the goat — 
he had a very kindly feeling for all creatures belonging to 
farm life. Over those under his own care he was remark- 
ably watchful, taking pleasure in providing for all their 
wants, seeing them comfortably sheltered and supplied with 
abundance of good food and wholesome water. All these 
creatures, from the cats and dogs of the house to the poul- 
try, cows, oxen, horses — all learned to know him, and 
would gather about him when he appeared, and frequently 
follow him in a mixed procession, often not a little comical. 
He was partial to cats as well as dogs, and a pet half-breed 
Angora frequently perched on his shoulder while he was 
writing in the library. Insignificant as these simple details 
may appear, they are truthful touches, and as such have a 
portion of interest. 

But to return to the Pacific. So clearly are the long 
stretch of reef, the shoals, the intricate channels amid the 
breakers, the rocky islets, and the extinct volcano sketched 
in the narrative, so skillfully is the tiny dingui navigated? 
month after month, in this mysterious maze of rock and 
white water, that we almost expect to find a regular 
chart in one of the chapters. But chart there was none, 
save that which the author held so clearly, and accurately 
sketched in his own mind’s eye. Seeing it vividly in all its 
details himself, he gives the reader also a clear impression 
of the imaginary region. He never prepared a sketch, or 
notes of any kind, while writing a work of fiction. A vague 
outline once drawn in his own mind, the filling up seemed 
to follow without eflTort ; he frequently planned the details 


XIV 


INTROPUCTIOX. 


of the different chapters while walking to and fro in the 
long hall of the house, or, sailor-fashion, “on the “ quarter- 
deck ” in the grounds. Often, indeed, he seemed to write 
upon the suggestion of the moment, drawing fresh details 
from the copious fount of imagination. lie was never, in 
the sense of studied preparation, an artist in the composi- 
tion of a work of fiction. He wrote, as it were, from the 
inspiration of the moment. When writing on subjects 
connected with history, biography, or statistics, which fre- 
quently happened, his course was very different — then he 
immediately became the careful, painstaking student, and 
would search out any interesting little detail of relative im- 
portance with great patience and close application. Wher- 
ever truth was in any way at stake he was always a re- 
markably conscientious writer. 

Those desolate rocks, and the wild sea-birds haunting 
them, behold many strange events, from the moment when 
the Rancocus is driven into one of the narrow channels, 
where she lies embayed, and the two mariners, Woolston 
and Betts, are left alone on the reef. The first steps of civ- 
ilization have scarcely been taken, vegetation thriving under 
the hand of man, verdure appearing on the naked rock, 
when an earthquake, the consequence of the outbreak of 
another, but a distant, volcano, changes the aspect of crater- 
land, raising the crust of the earth, bringing reef and rock 
some additional feet above the waves. Then, at the end of 
a few years, the young wife left on the banks of the Dela- 
ware comes anxiously seeking her shipwrecked husband, 
and is accompanied by a little colony of friends and rela- 
tives.- Unlike Crusoe, who returns to civilization, Mark 
Woolston finds civilization growing up about him. Having 
seen the first touches of vegetation and agriculture, we now' 
follow the first steps of social life in the remote colony. 
Struggles with invading savages from a distant group of 
islands, appearing in a fleet of canoes and catamarans ; a 
fierce fight with pirates of European race, a ship and two 
brigs, bringing the young colony into imminent peril ; then 


INTRODUCTION. 


XV 


a period of quiet growth and successful commerce in whale- ' 
oil and sandal-wood ; these events fill up the record of a 
dozen more years. Woolston and his colony grow rich and 
prosperous. The Rancocus, with an increased force of 
skilled labor at command, is successfully delivered from the 
dangerous berth in the rocky channel where she had so long 
lain cradled; she is repaired and sails on her homeward 
voyage, bound first, however, for a cargo of sandal-wood, to 
be exchanged for teas at Canton, and thence to the wharves 
of Philadelphia, where she is honorably returned to her 
owners, after all those years of adventure. 

The sandal-wood, so often mentioned, is a low tree, not 
much unlike our privet in size and foliage. When it has 
reached its full maturity the older portion of the small 
trunk — its heart, as one may say — assumes a rich yellow ^ 
coloring and becomes very fragrant, while the younger 
wood surrounding it has no color and no fragrance. It is 
the yellow wood only which is so highly valued as an arti- 
cle of commerce, being used for musical instruments, and 
also for choice cabinets, and the fans skillfully manufactured 
by the Chinese. The tree grows on many of the Pacific 
Islands, the ocean air seeming favorable to its nature. The 
botanical name is Santalum album. 

The motto connected with a closing chapter of “ The 
Crater ” is one that has often been repeated : Vox PopuU^ 
V^ox Dei. The origin of the phrase is not clearly known. 
The words were used by Mr. Cooper in the opening sen- 
tence of an address delivered before the literary societies of 
Geneva College, some years before his death. The earliest 
trace he could find of the axiom was in William of Malms- 
bury, the English monk and historian, who died in 1148. 
The chronicler was present at the coronation of the Em- 
press Maud, when the Papal Legate made a speech in favor 
of the claims of the empress, and in opposition to King 
Stephen. He then proceeded to declare the daughter of 
Henry I. Queen of England, and the whole assembly by 
their acclamations gave assent to the proclamation. It is 


XV] 


INTRODUCTION. 


believed that it was on this occasion that the Legate — sat- 
isfied with the result which he had prepared — exclaimed, 
after hearing the acclamations of the assembly, Vox Populi^ 
Vox Dei! Having no copy of William of Malmsbury 
within reach, and no trace of Mr. Cooper’s MS. with its 
reference to the quotation having been found, the writer of 
these notes can go no farther in tracing the origin of an 
axiom so familiar. 

In a higher sense, the supreme control of a nation, the 
working out of the grand and to us often mysterious ends 
of Divine Providence by a people, there can be no doubt of 
its truth ; while in a lower sense, in its minute application 
to every popular caprice, it is one of the many political 
phrases liable to gross abuse in this nineteenth century, and 
in our own republic. In his political opinions Mr. Cooper 
was frankly and loyally a republican, and a democrat in the 
higher sense of those words. With no other forms of gov- 
ernment had he any personal sympathy. But he was noth- 
ing of a political propagandist, believing that all forms of 
civilized government have their uses at particular periods, 
and in particular conditions of society. A sound democ- 
racy he held to be capable in this nineteenth century, and 
in this young and vigorous nation, of a high and generous 
development, if subject to Christian principle. He was in 
favor of a broad, liberal suffrage. In absolute universal suf- 
frage he did not believe. He held the theory in fact to be 
dangerous, and utterly impracticable for any length of time, 
when pushed to extremes. He held it to be dangerous, as, 
increasing the power of the selfish demagogue, by making 
over to his hands the ignorant foreigner and the vicious na- 
tive as so many tools for mischief. He wished that some- 
thing more of an educational and a moral qualification 
were provided as limits to the suffrage, — that gross igno- 
rance, crime, and habitual intemperance should be deprived 
of the vote, so far as practicable. He did i ot believe that 
by placing the suffrage in the hands of an ignorant Euro- 
pean emigrant you could suddenly metamorphose the indi- 


INTRODUCTION. 


xvii 


vidual into an American patriot. He believed that the 
native American criminal, or habitual drunkard, would be 
always ready to sell his vote to the highest bidder for any 
evil purpose whatever. The political characteristics of Mr. 
Cooper were strong and clearly marked, nay, they were 
rare and remarkable. He had no political idols. He did 
not worship the Goddess of Liberty, or the suffrage, or the 
caucus, or the primary meeting. He was purely generous 
and unselfish in his political views and aims ; he was en- 
tirely frank, candid, and fearless in the expression of his 
convictions. In short, as a politician, he was thoroughly 
honest and thoroughly manly. 

We quote a few passages from his own writings in proof 
of what has been said. In the year 1838 he was requested, 
by a gentleman connected with public instruction, to write 
a small volume of a political and moral character for the' 
use of the higher classes in the common schools. He gave 
to the little book the name of “ The American Democrat.” 
Here are a few of the passages : — 

‘‘ All that the best institutions can achieve, is to remove 
useless obstacles, and to permit merit to be the artisan of its 
own fortunes.” 

“ Every human excellence is merely comparative, there 
being no good without alloy. It is idle, therefore, to ex- 
spect a system which shall exhibit faultlessness or perfec- 
tion.” 

“ The words liberty, equality, right, and justice, used in a 
political sense, are merely terms of convention, and of com- 
l)arative excellence, there being no such thing in practice as 
either of these qualities being carried out purely, according 
to the abstract notions of theories.” 

‘‘ The affairs of life embrace a multitude of interests, and 
and he who reasons on any one of them, without consider- 
ing the rest, is a visionary unsuited to control the business 
of the world.” 

“There is a prevalent disposition in the designing to for- 
get the means in the end, and on the part of the mass to 
b 


XVlll 


INTRODUCTION. 


overlook the result in the more immediate agencies. The 
first is the consequence of cupidity ; the last of shortsight- 
edness, and frequently of the passions. Both these faults 
need to be vigilantly watched in a democracy, as the first 
unsettles principles while it favors artifice, and the last is 
substituting the transient motives of a day for the deliberate 
policy and collective wisdom of ages.” 

“ Men are the constant dupes of names, while their hap- 
piness and well-being mainly depend on things. The high- 
est proof a community can give of its fitness for self-gov- 
ernment is its readiness in distinguishing between the two.” 

“ It is a governing principle of nature, that the agency 
which can produce most good, when perverted from its 
proper aim, is most productive of evil. It behooves the 
well intentioned, therefore, vigilantly to watch the tendency 
of even their most highly prized institutions, since that 
which was established in the interests of right may so 
easily become the agent of wrong.” 

“ The disposition of all human power is to abuses, nor does 
it at all mend the matter that its possessors are a major- 
ity. Unrestrained political authority, though it be confided 
to masses, cannot be trusted without positive limitations ; 
men in bodies being but an aggregation of the passions, 
weaknesses, and interests of men as individuals.” 

“ Under every system it is more especially the office of 
the prudent and candid to guard against the evils peculiar 
to that system, than to declaim against the abuses of others. 
Thus, in a democracy, instead of decrying monarchs and 
aristocrats, who are impotent, it is wiser to look into the 
sore spots of the only form of government that can do us 
any practical injury, and to apply the necessary remedies, 
than to be glorifying ourselves at the expense of charity, 
common sense, and, not unfrequently, of truth.” 

“ Life is made up of positive things, the existence of 
which it is not only folly, but which it is often unsafe to 
deny. Nothing is gained by setting up impracticable theo- 
ries, but alienating opinion from the facts under which we 


INTRODUCTION. 


XIX 


live, all the actual distinctions that are inseparable from the 
possession of property, learning, breeding, refinement, tastes, 
?lnd principles existing as well in one form of government 
as in another ; the only difference between ourselves and 
other nations is this particular, lying in the fact that there 
are no other artificial distinctions than those which are in- 
separable from the recognized principles and indispensable 
laws of civilization.’’ 


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■ *7 


THE OEATER. 

CHAPTER L 

’Twas a commodity lay fretting by you; 

’Twill bring you gain, or perish on the seaa. 

Taming of the Shrew. 

There is nothing in which American liberty, not al- 
ways as much restrained as it might be, has manifested a 
more decided tendency to run riot, than in the use of 
names. As for Christian names, the heathen mythology, 
the Bible, ancient history, and all the classics, have long 
since been exhausted, and the organ of invention has been 
at work with an exuberance of imagination that is really 
wonderful for such a matter-of-fact people. Whence all 
the strange sounds have been derived which have thus been 
pressed into the service of this human nomenclature, it 
would puzzle the most ingenious philologist to say. The 
days of the Kates, and Dollys, and Pattys, and Bettys, 
have passed away, and in their stead we hear of Lowinys, 
and Orchistrys, Philenys, Alminys, Cytherys, Sarahlettys, 
Amindys, Marindys, etc., etc., etc. All these last appella- 
tions terminate properly with an a, but this unfortunate 
vowel, when a final letter, being popularly pronounced like 
y, we have adapted our spelling to the sound, which pro- 
duces a complete bathos to all these flights in taste. 

The hero of this narrative was born full sixty years 
since, and happily before the rage for modern appellations, 
though he just escaped being named after another sys- 
tem which we cannot say we altogether admire ; that of 
using a family, for a Christian name. This business of 
names is a sort of science in itself, and we do believe that 


2 


THE CRATER. 


it is less understood and less attended to in this country i 
than in almost all others. When a Spaniard writes his 
name as Juan de Castro y ^ Munos, we know that his father 
belonged to the family of Castro and his mother to that of 
Munos. The French, and Italian, and Russian woman, 
etc., writes on her card Madame this or that, horn so and 
so ; all which tells the whole history of her individuality. 
Many French women, in signing their names, prefix those 
of their own family to those of their husbands, a sensible 
and simple usage that we are glad to see is beginning to 
obtain among ourselves. The records on tomb-stones, too, 
might be made much more clear and useful than they now- 
are, by stating distinctly who the party was, on both sides 
of the house, or by father and mother ; and each married 
woman ought to be commemorated in some such fashion 
as this: “Here lies Jane Smith, wife of John Jones,” etc., 
or, “ Jane, daughter of Thomas Smith and wife of John 
Jones.” We believe that, in some countries, a woman’s 
name is not properly considered to be changed by mar- 
riage, but she becomes a Mrs. only in connection with the 
name of her husband. Thus Jane Smith becomes Mrs. 
John Jones, but not Mrs. Jane Jones. It is on this idea 
we suppose that our ancestors the English (every English- 
man, as a matter of course, being every American’s ances- 
tor) — thus it is, we suppose, therefore, that our ancestors, 
who pay so much more attention to such matters than we 
do ourselves, in their table of courtesy, call the wife of 
Lord John Russell, Lady John, and not Lady — whatever 
her Christian name may happen to be. We suppose, 
moreover, it is on this principle that Mrs. General This, 
Mrs. Dr. That, and Mrs. Senator T’other, are as inaccu- 
rate as they are notoriously vulgar. 

Mark Woolston came from a part of this great republic 
where the names are still as simple, unpretending, and as 
good Saxon English, as in the county of Kent itself. He 
was born in the little town of Bristol, Bucks County, 

1 Some few of our readers may require to be told that, in Spanish, y, pro- 
nounced as e, is the simple conjunction “ and; ” thus this name is de Castro 
and Munos. 


THE CRATER. 


3 


Pennsylva'iia. This is a portion of the country that — 
Heaven be praised ! — still retains some of the good old- 
fashioned directness and simplicity. Bucks is full of Jacks, 
and Bens, and Dicks, and we question if there is such a 
creature, of native growth, in all that region, as an Ithusy, 
or a Seneky, or" a Dianthy, or an Antonizetty, or a Dei- 
damy.^ The Woolstons, in particular, were a plain family, 
and very unpretending in their external appearance, but 
of solid and highly respectable habits around the domes- 
tic hearth. Knowing perfectly how to spell, they never 
dreamed any one would suspect them of ignorance. They 
called themselves as their forefathers were called, that is 
to say, Wooster, or just as Worcester is pronounced ; though 
a Yankee schoolmaster tried for a whole summer to per- 
suade our hero, when a child, that he ought to be styled 
Wool-ston. This had no effect on Mark, who went on 
talking of his uncles and aunts, “Josy Wooster,” and 
“ Tommy Wooster,” and “ Peggy Wooster,” precisely as if 
a New England academy did not exist on earth ; ar as if 
Webster had not actually put Johnson under his feet ! 

The father of Mark Woolston (or Wooster) was a phy- 
sician, and, for the country and age, was a well-educated 
and skillful man. Mark was born in 1777, just seventy 
years since, and only ten days before the surrender of Bur- 
goyne. A good deal of attention was paid to his instruc- 
tion, and fortunately for himself, his servitude under the 
Eastern pedagogue was of very short duration, and Mark 
continued to speak the English language as his fathers had 
spoken it before him. The difference on the score of lan- 
guage between Pennsylvania and New Jersey and Mary- 
land, always keeping in the counties that were not settled 
by Germans or Irish, and the New England States, and 
through them. New York, is really so obvious as to de- 
serve a passing word. In the States first named, taverns, 
for instance, are still called the Dun Cow, the Indian 

1 Absurd and forced as these strange appellations may appear, they are all 
genuine. The writer has collected a long list of such names from real life, 
which he may one day publish — Orchistra, Philena, and Almina are among 
them. To all the names ending in o, it must be remembered that the sound 
of a final y is given. 


I 


THE CRATER. 


Queen, or the Anchor ; whereas such a thing would be 
hard to find, at this day, among the six millions of people 
who dwell in the latter. We question if there be such a 
thing as a coffee-house in all Philadelphia, though, we ad- 
mit it with grief, the respectable town of Brotherly Love 
has in some respects become infected with the spirit of in- 
novation. Thus it is that good old “ State House Yard 
has been changed into “ Independence Square.” This cer- 
tainly is not as bad as the tour de force of the aldermen 
of Manhattan when they altered “ Bear Market ” into 
“ Washington Market ! ” for it is not a prostitution of the 
name of a great man, in the first place, and there is a 
direct historical allusion in the new name that everybody 
can understand. Still, it is to be regretted ; and we hope 
this will be the last thing of the sort that will ever occur, 
though we confess our confidence in Philadelphian stabil- 
ity and consistency is a good deal lessened, since we have 
learned, by means of a late law-suit, that there are fifty or 
sixty aldermen in the place ; a number of those worthies 
that is quite sufficient to upset the proprieties, in Athens 
itself ! 

Dr. Woolston had a competitor in another physician, 
who lived within a mile of him, and whose name was 
Yardley. Dr. Yardley was a very respectable person, had 
about the same degree of talents and knowledge as his 
neighbor and rival, but was much the richest man of the 
two. Dr. Yardley, however, had but one child, a daugh- 
ter, whereas Dr. Woolston, with much less of means, had 
sons and daughters. Mark was the oldest of the family, 
and it was probably owing to this circumstance that he 
was so well educated, since the expense was not yet to be 
shared with that of keeping his brothers and sisters at 
schools of the same character. 

In 1777 an American college was little better than a 
high school. It could not be called, in strictness, a gram- 
mar school, inasmuch as all the sciences were glanced at, 
if not studied ; but, as respects the classics, more than a 
grammar school it was not, nor that of a very high order. 
It was a consequence of the light nature of the studies, 


THE CKATER. 


5 


! that mere boys graduated in those institutions. Such was 
! the case with Mark Woolston, who would have taken his 
, degree as a Bachelor of Arts, at Nassau Hall, Princeton, 

I liad not an event occurred, in his sixteenth year, which 
produced an entire change in his plan of life, and nipped 
his academical honors in the bud. 

Although it is unusual for square-rigged vessels of any 
size to ascend the Delaware higher than Philadelphia, the 
river is, in truth, navigable for such craft almost to Tren- 
ton Bridge. In the year 1793, when Mark Woolston was 
just sixteen, a full-rigged ship actually came up, and lay at 
'• the ehd of the wharf in Burlington, the little town nearly 
opposite to Bristol, where she attracted a great deal of the 
attention of all the youths of the vicinity. Mark was at 
* home, in a vacation, and he passed half his time in and 
I about that ship, crossing the river in a skiff of which he 
was the owner, in order to do so. From that hour young 
Mark affected the sea, and all the tears of his mother and 
eldest sister, the latter a pretty girl only two years his jun- 
ior, and the more sober advice of his father, could not 
induce him to change his mind. A six weeks’ vacation 
was passed in the discussion of this subject, when the 
doctor yielded to his son’s importunities, probably fore- 
seeing he should have his hands full to educate his other 
children, and not unwilling to put this child, as early' as 
possible, in the way of supporting himself. 

The commerce of America, in 1793, was, already flour- 
ishing, and Philadelphia was then much the most impor- 
tant place in the country. Its East India trade, in partic- 
ular, was very large and growing, and Dr. Woolston knew 
that fortunes were rapidly made by many engaged in it. 
After turning the thing well over in his mind, he deter- 
mined to consult Mark’s inclinations, and to make a sailor 
of him. He had a cousin married to the sister of an East 
India, or rather of a Canton ship-master, and to this per- 
son the father applied for advice and assistance. Captain 
Crutchely very willingly consented to receive Mark in his 
own vessel, the llancocus, and promised ‘ to make a mau 
and an officer of him.” 


6 


THE CRATEK. 


- The very day Mark first saw the ocean he was sixteen \ 
years old. He had got his height, five feet eleven, and j 
was strong for his years, and active. In fact, it would not ' 
have been easy to find a lad every way so well adapted i 
to his new calling, as young Mark Wools ton. The three ; 
years of his college life, if they had not made him a New- j 
ton, or a Bacon,- had done him no harm, filling his mind S 
with the germs of ideas that were destined afterwards to | 
become extremely useful to him. The young man was j 
already, indeed, a sort of factotum, being clever and handy | 
at so many things and in so many different ways, as early j 
to attract the attention of the officers. Long before the 
''vessel reached the capes, he was at home in her, from her 
truck to her keelson, and Captain Crutchely remarked to. 
his chief mate, the day they got to sea, that “ young Mark 
Woolston was likely to turn up a trump.” 

As for Mark himself, he did not lose sight of the land, 
for the first time in his life, altogether without regrets. 
He had a good deal of feeling in connection with his par- 
ents, and his brothers and sisters ; but, as it is our aim to 
conceal nothing which ought to be revealed, we must add 
there was still another who filled his thoughts more than 
all the rest united. This person was Bridget Yardley, 
the only child of his father’s most formidable professional 
competitor. 

The two physicie,ns were obliged to keep up a sickly 
intercourse, not intending a pun. They were too often 
called in to consult together, to maintain an open war. 
While the heads of their respective families occasionally 
met, therefore, at the bedside of their patients, the families 
themselves had no direct communications. It is true that 
Mrs. Woolston and Mrs. Yardley were occasionally to be 
seen seated at the same tea-table, taking their hyson in 
company, for the recent trade with China had expelled the 
bohea from most of the better parlors of the country ; 
nevertheless, these good ladies could not get to be cordial 
with each other. They themselves had a difference on 
religious points, that was almost as bitter as the difterencea 
of opinions between their husbands on the subject of alter- 


THE CRATER. 


7 


atives. In that distant day, homoeopathy, and allopathy, 
and hydropathy, and all the opathies, were nearly un- 
known ; but men could wrangle and abuse each other on 
medical points just as well and as bitterly then as they 
do now. Religion, too, quite as often failed to bear its 
proper fruits in 1793, as it proves barren in these our'ovvn 
times. On this subject of religion we h^e one word to 
say, and that is, simply, that it never was a meet matter 
for self-gratulation and boasting. Here we have the 
Americo-Anglican church, just as it has finished a blast of 
trumpets, through the medium of numberless periodicals 
and a thousand letters from its confiding if not confident 
clergy, in honor of its quiet, and harmony, and superior 
polity, suspended on the very brink of the precipice of 
'^separation, if not of schism, and all because it has pleased 
cei-tain ultra-sublimated divines in the other hemisphere to 
write a parcel of tracts that nobody understands, them- 
selves included. .How many even of the ministers of the 
altar fall, at the very moment they are beginning to fancy 
themselves saints, and are ready to thank God they are 
“ not like the publicans ! ” ^ 

Both Mrs. Woolston and Mrs. Yardley were what is 
called “pious;” that is, each said her prayers, each went 
to her particular church, and very particular churches 
they were ; each fancied she had a sufficiency of saving 
faith, but neither was charitable, enough to think in a 
very friendly temper of the other. This difference of re- 
ligious opinion, added to the rival reputations of their hus- 
bands, made these ladies anything but good neighbors, and, 
as has been intimated, years had passed since either had 
entered the door of the other. 

Very different was the feeling of the children. Anne 
Woolston, the oldest sister of Mark, and Bridget Yardley, 
were nearly of an age, and they were not only school- 
mates, but fast friends. To give their mothers their due, 
they did not lessen this intimacy by hints, or intimations 
of any sort, but let the girls obey their own tastes, as if 
satisfied it was quite sufficient for “ professors of religion ” 
to hate in their own persons, without entailing the feeling 


8 


THE CRATER. 


on posterity. Anne and Bridget consequently became 
warm friends, the two sweet, pretty young things both be- ; 
lieving, in the simplicity of their hearts, that the very 
circumstance which in truth caused the alienation, not to i 
say the hostility of the elder members of their respective 
families, namely, professional identity, was an additional! 
reason why they should love each other so much the more. • 
The girls were about two and three years the juniors ofi 
Mark, but well grown for their time of life, and frank andi 
affectionate as innocence and warm hearts could make! 
them. Each w^as more than pretty, though it was in styles 
so very different, as scarcely to produce any of that other 
sort of rivalry which is so apt to occur even in the gentler 
sex. Anne had bloom, and features, and fine teeth, and a 
charm that is so very common in America, a good mouth 
but Bridget had all these added to expression. Nothing; 
could be more soft, gentle, and feminine, than Bridget: 
Yardley’s countenance, in its ordinary state of rest; or' 
more spirited, laughing, buoyant or pitying than it became, 
as the different passions or feelings were excited in heri 
young bosom. As Mark was often sent to see his sister 
home, in her frequent visits to the madam’s house, where! 
the two girls held most of their intercourse, he was nat- 
urally enough admitted into their association. The con- 
nection commenced by Mark’s agreeing to be Bridget’s 
brother, as wmll as Anne’s. This w^as generous, at least ; 
for Bridget was an only child, and it was no more than 
right to repair the wrongs of fortune in this, particular. 
The charming young thing declared that she would “ rather 
have Mark Woolston for her brother than any other boy in 
Bristol ; and that it was delightful to have the same person 
for a brother as Anne ! ” Notwithstanding this flight in the 
romantic, Bridget Yardley was as natural as it was possible ' 
for a female in a reasonably civilized condition of society \ 
to be. There was a vast deal of excellent, feminine self- ' 
devotion in her temperament, but not a particle of the exag-; 
gerated, in either sentiment or feeling. True as steel in all 
her impulses and opinions, in adopting Mark for a brother 
she merely yielded to a strong natural sympathy, without’ 


THE CRATEK. 


9 


understanding its tendency or its origin. She would talk by 
tlie hour with Anne, touching their brother, and what they 
must make him do, and where he must, go witli them, and 
in what they could oblige liim most. The real sister was 
less active than her friend, in mind and body, and she 
listened to all these schemes and notions with a quiet sub- 
mission that was not entirely free from wonder. 

The result of all this intercourse was to awaken a feel- 
ing between Mark and Bridget that was far more profound 
than might have been thought in breasts so young, and 
which colored their future lives. Mark first became con- 
scious of the strength of this feeling when he lost sight 
of the Capes, and fancied the dear little Bucks- County girl 
he had left behind him talking with his sister of his own 
absence and risks. But Mark had too much of the true 
spirit of a sailor in him to pine, or neglect his duty ; and, 
. long ere the ship had doubled the Cape of Good Hope, he 
had become an active and handy lad aloft. When the ship 
reached the China seas, he actually took his trick at the 
helm. 

As was usual in that day, the voyage of the Bancocus 
lasted about a twelvemonth. If John Chinaman were only 
one half as active as Jonathan Restless, it might be dis- 
posed of in about one fourth less time; but teas are not 
transported along the canals of the Celestial Empire with 
anything like the rapidity with which wheat was sent to 
market over the rough roads of the great republic, in the 
age of which we are writing. 

When Mark Woolston reappeared in Bristol, after the 
arrival of the Rancocus below had been known there about 
twenty-four hours, he was the envy of all the lads in the 
place, and the admiratio i of most of the girls. There he 
was, a tall, straight, active, well-made, well-grown and de- 
cidedly handsome lad of seventeen, who had doubled the 
Cape of Good Hope, seen foreign parts, and had a real 
India handkerchief hanging out of each pocket. of a blue 
roundabout of superfine cloth, besides one around his half- 
open well-formed throat, that was carelessly tied in a true 
sailor knot ! The (questions he had to answer, and did 


10 


THE CRATER. 


answer, about whales, Chinese feet, and “ mountain waves ! 
Although Bristol lies on a navigable river, up and down 1 
which frigates had actually been seen to pass in the Revo- 
lution, it was but little that its people knew of the ocean. 
Most of the worthy inhabitants of the place actually fancied 
that the waves of the sea were as high as mountains, though 
their notions of the last were not very precise, there being 
no elevations in that part of the country fit even for a 
windmill. 

But Mark cared little for these interrogatories. He was 
happy ; happy enough, at being the object of so much at- 
tention ; happier still in the bosom of a family of which he 
had always been the favorite and was now the pride ; and 
happiest of all when he half ravished a kiss from the blush- 
ing cheek of Bridget' Yardley. Twelve mouths had done 
a great deal for each of the young couple. If they had not 
quite made a man of Mark, they had made him manly, and 
his soi-disant sister wondered that any one could be so 
much improved by a sea-faring life. As^for Bridget her- 
self, she was just bursting into young womanhood, resem- 
bling the bud as its leaves of green are opening to permit 
those of the deepest rose-colored tint to be seen, before 
they expand into the full-blown flower. Mark was more 
than delighted, he was fascinated ; and young as they were, 
the month he passed at home sufficed to enable him to tell 
his passion, and to obtain a half-ready, half-timid accept- 
ance of the offer of his hand. All this time, the parents 
of these very youthful lovers were as profoundly ignorant 
of what was going on as their children were unobservant 
of the height to w^hich professional competition had car- 
ried hostilities between their respective parents. Doctors 
Woolston and Yardley no longer met even in consultations ; 
or,' if they did meet in the house of some patient whose 
patronage was of tod much value to be slighted, it was only 
to dispute, and sometimes absolutely to quarrel. 

At the end of one short month, however, Mark was once 
more summoned to his post on board the Rancocus, tem- 
porarily putting an end to his delightful interviews with-] 
Bridget. The lovers had made Anne their confidapte, and 


FHE CRATER. 


11 


she, well-meaning gir/, seeing no sufficient reason why the 
son of one respectable physician should not be a suitable 
match for the daughter of another respectable physician, 
encouraged them in their vows of constancy and pledges 
to become man and wife at a future but an early day. 
To some persons all this may seem exceedingly improper, 
as well as extremely precocious ; but the truth compels us 
to say that its impropriety was by no means as obvious as 
its precocity. The latter it certainly was, though Mark 
had shot up early, and was a man at a time of life when 
lads in less genial climates scarcely get tails to their coats ; 
but its impropriety must evidently be measured by the 
habits ot the state of society in which the parties were 
brought up, and by the duties that liad been inculcated. 
In America, then as now, but little heed was taken by 
parents, more especially in what may be called the middle 
classes, concerning the connections thus formed by their 
children. So long as the parties were moral, bore good 
characters, had nothing particular against them, and were 
of something near the same social station, little else was 
asked for ; or, if more were actually required, it was usu- 
ally when it was too late, and after the young people had 
got themselves too deeply in love to allow ordinary pru- 
dential reasons to have their due force. 

Mark went to sea, this time dragging after him a “ length- 
ening chain,” but nevertheless filled with hope. His years 
forbade much despondency, and, while he remained as 
constant as if he had been a next-door neighbor, he was 
buoyant, and the life of the whole crew, after the first week 
out. This voyage was not direct to Canton, like the first ; 
but the ship took a cargo of sugar to Amsterdam, and 
thence went to London, where she got a freight for Cadiz. 
The war of the French Revolution was now blazing in all 
the heat of its first fires, and American bottoms were obtain- 
ing a large portion of the carrying trade of the world. 
Captain Crutchely had orders to keep the ship in Europe, 
making the most of her, until a certain 'sum in Spanish 
dollars could be collected, when he was to fill up with 
provisions and water, and again make the best of his way 


12 


THE CRATER. 


to Canton. In obeying these instructions, he went from 
port to port; and, as a sort of consequence of having 
(Quaker owners, turned his peaceful character to great 
])rolit, thus giving Mark many opportunities of seeing as 
inucli of what is called the world as can be found in sea- 
ports. Great, indeed, is the difference between places that 
are merely the marts of commerce, and those that are really 
political capitals of large countries ! No one can be aware 
of or can fully appreciate the many points of difference 
that in reality exist between such places, who has not seen 
each, and that sufficiently near to be familiar with both. 
Some places, of which London is the most remarkable ex- 
ample, enjoy botl\ characters ; and when this occurs, the 
town gets to possess a tone that is even less provincial and 
narrow, if possible, than that which is to be found in a place 
that merely rejoices in a court. This it is which renders 
Naples, insignificant as its commerce comparatively is, supe- 
rior to Vienna, and Genoa to Florence. While it would 
be folly to pretend that Mark, in his situation, obtained the 
most accurate notions imaginable of all he saw and heard, 
in his visits to Amsterdam, London, Cadiz, Bordeaux, Mar- 
seilles, Leghorn, Gibraltar, and two or three other ports 
that might be mentioned and to which he went, he did 
glean a good deal, some of which was useful to him in after- 
life. He lost no sTnall portion of the provincial rust of 
home, moreover, and began to understand the vast differ 
ence between “ seeing the world ” and “ going to meeting 
and going to mill.” ^ In addition to these advantages, INIark 
was transferred from the forecastle to the cabin before the 
ship sailed for Canton. The practice of near two years 
had made him a very tolerable sailor, and his previous 

1 This last phrase has often caused the writer to smile, when he has heard a 
countryman say, with a satisfied air, as is so often the case in this good re- 
public, that “ such or such a thing here is good enough for me ; ” meaning 
that he questions if there be anything of the sort that is better anywhere else. 
It was uttered many years since, by a shrewd Quaker, in West Chester, who 
was contending with a neighbor on a subject that the other endeavored to 
defend by alluding to the extent of his own observation. “ Oh, yes, Josy,” 
answered the Friend, » thee’s been to meeting and thee’s been to mill, and thee 
knows all about it ! ” America is full of travelers who have been to meetinof 
and who have been to mill. This it is which makes it unnecessarily provincial 


THE CRATER. 


18 


education made the study of navigation easy to him. In 
tliat day there was a scarcity of officers in America, and a 
young man of Mark’s advantages, physical and moral, was 
certain to get on rapidly, provided he only behaved well. 
' It is not at all surprising, therefore, that our young sailor 
-got to be the second mate of the Rancocus before he had 
quite completed his eighteenth year. ^ 

: The voyage from London to Canton, and thence home ,to 

Philadelphia, consumed about ten months. The Rancocus 
, was a fast vessel, but she could not impart her speed to the 
I Chinamen. It followed that Mark wanted but a few weeks 
I of being nineteen years old the day his ship passed Cape 
May, and, what was more, he had the promise of Captain 
Crutchely of sailing with him, as his first officer, in the next 
jr voyage. With that promise in his mind, Mark hastened 
‘ up the river to Bristol, as soon as he was clear of the vessel. 

Bridget Yardley had now fairly budded, to pursue the 
figure with which we commenced the description of this 
blooming flower, and, if not actually expanded into perfect 
I womanhood, was so near it as to show beyond all question 
that the promises oi her childhood were to be very amply 
redeemed. Mark found her in black, however ; or, in 
mourning for her mother. An only child, this serious loss 
had thrown her more than ever in the way of Anne, the 
parents on both sides winking at an association that could 
do no harm, and which might prove so useful. It was 
srery different, however, with the young sailor. He had 
not been a fortnight at home, and getting to be intimate 
with the roof-tree of Doctor Yardley, before that person 
saw fit to pick a quarrel with him, and to forbid him his 
house. As the dispute was wholly gratuitous on the part 
of the doctor, Mark behaving with perfect propriety on the 
occasion, it may be well to explain its real cause. The 
fact was that Bridget was an heiress ; if not on a very 
large scale, still an heiress, and, what was more, unalter- 
ably so in right of her mother ; and the thought that a son 
of his competitor. Doctor Woolston, should profit by this 
fact, was utterly insupportable to him. Accordingly, he 
quarreled with Mark the instant he was apprised of the 


14 


THE CRATER. 


character of his attentions, and forbade him the house. 
To do Mark justice, he knew nothing of Bridget’s worldly 
possessions. That she was beautiful, and warm-hearted, 
and frank, and sweet-tempered, and feminine, and affec- 
tionate, he both saw and felt ; but beyond this he neither 
saw anything, nor cared about seeing anything. The 
young sailor was as profoundly ignorant that Bridget was 
the actual owner of certain three per cents, that brought 
twelve hundred a year, as if she did not own a “ copper,” 
as it was the fashion of that period to say, “ cents ” being 
then very little, if at all, used. Nor did he know anything 
of the farm she had inherited from her mother, or of the 
store in town, that brought three hundred and fifty more 
in rent. It is true that some allusions were made to these 
matters by Doctor Yardley, in his angry comments on the 
AVoolston family generally, Anne always excepted, and in 
whose favor he made a salvo, even in the height of his de- 
nunciations. Still, Mark thought so much of that which 
was really estimable and admirable in Bridget, and so little 
of anything mercenary, that even after these revelations he 
could not comprehend the causes of Doctor Yardley’s harsh 
treatment of him. During the whole scene, which was 
purposely enacted in the presence of his wondering and 
trembling daughter, Mark behaved perfectly well. He had 
a respect for the doctor’s years, as well as for Bridget’s 
father, and would not retort. After waiting as long as he 
conceived waiting could be of any use, he seized his hat, 
and left the room with an air of resentment that Bridget 
construed into the expression of an intention never to speak^ 
to any of them again. But Mark Woolston was governed 
by no such design, as the sequel will show. 


THE CRATER. 


15 


CHAPTER 11. 

“ She’s not fourteen.” 

“ I’ll lay fourteen of my teeth, 

And yet, to my teen be it spoken, I have ’out four, — 

She is not fourteen.” 

Romeo and Juliet. 

Divine wisdom has commanded us to “ Honor your 
father and your mother.” Observant travelers affirm that 
less respect is paid to parents in America than is usual in 
Christian nations — we say Ghristian nations ; for many of 
the heathen, the Chinese for instance, worship them, though 
probably with an allegorical connection that we do not 
understand. That the parental tie is more loose in this 
country than in most others we believe, and there is a rea- 
son to be found for it in the migratory habits of the people, 
and in the general looseness in all the ties that connect 
men with the past. The laws on the subject of matrimony, 
moreover, are so very lax, intercourse is so simple and has 
so many facilities, and the young of the two sexes are left 
so much to themselves, that it is no wonder children form 
that connection so often without reflection and contrary to 
the wishes of their friends. Still, the law of God is there, 
and we are among those who believe that a neglect of its 
mandates is very, apt to bring its punishment, even in this 
world, and we are inclined to think that much of that 
which Mark and Bridget subsequently suffered was in 
consequence of acting directly in the face of the wishes 
and injunctions of their parents. 

The scene which had taken place under the roof of 
Doctor Yardley was soon known under that of Doctor 
Woolston. Although the last individual was fully aware 
that Bridget was what was then esteemed rich, ‘at Bristol, 
he cared not for her money. The girl he liked well enough, 
and in secret even admired her as much as he could find 


16 


THE CRATEB. 


t 

it in his heart to admire anything of Doctor Yardley’s ; but 
the indignity was one he was by no means inclined to over- 
look, and, in his turn, he forbade all intercourse between 
the girls. These two bitter pills, thus administered by the 
village doctors to their respective patients, made the young 
people very miserable. Bridget loved Anne almost as 
much as she loved Mark, and she began to pine and alter 
in her appearance, in a way to alarm her father. In order 
to divert her mind, he sent her to town, to the care of an 
aunt, altogether forgetting that Mark’s ship lay at the 
wharves of Philadelphia, and that he could not have sent 
his daughter to any place, out of Bristol, where the young 
man would be so likely to find her. This danger the good 
doctor entirely overlooked, or, if he thought of it at all, he 
must have fancied that his sister would keep a sliarp eye 
on the movements of the young sailor, and forbid him her 
house, too. 

Everything turned out as the doctor ouglit to have ex- 
pected. When Mark joined his ship, of which he was now 
the first officer, he sought Bridget and found her. The 
auntj however, administered to him the second potion of 
the same dose that her brother had originally dealt out, 
and gave him to understand that his presence in Front 
Street was not desired. This irritated both the young 
people, Bridget being far less disposed to submit to her 
aunt than to her father, and they met clandestinely in the 
streets. A week or two of this intercourse brought mat- 
ters to a crisis, and Bridget consented to a private mar- 
riage. The idea of again going to sea, leaving his be- 
trothed entirely in the hands of those who disliked him for 
his father’s sake, was intolerable to Mark, and it made him 
so miserable, that the tenderness of the deeply enamored 
girl could not withstand his appeals. They agreed to get 
married, but to keep their union a secret until Mark should 
become of age, when it was hoped he would be in a con- 
dition, in every point of view, openly to claim his wife. 

A thing of this sort, once decided on, is easily enough i 
put in execution in America. Among Mark’s college 
friends was one who was a few years older than himselfj 


THE CRATER. 


17 


and who had entered the ministry. This young man was 
tlien acting as a sort of missionary among the seamen, of 
the port, and he had fallen in the way of the young loVer 
the very first day of his return to his ship. It was an easy 
matter to work on the good nature of this easy-minded 
man, who, on hearing of the ill-treatment offered to his 
friend, was willing enough to perform the ceremony. 
Everything being previously arranged, Mark and Bridget 
w'ere married, early one morning, during the time the latter 
was out, in company with a female friend of about her own 
age, to take what her aunt believed was her customary 
walk before breakfast. Philadelphia, in 1796, was not the 
town it is to-day. It then lay, almost entirely, on the 
shores of the Delaware, those of the Schuykill being com- 
pletely in the country. What was more, the best quarters 
were still near the river, and the distance between the 
Rancocus — meaning Mark’s ship, and not the creek of 
that name — and the house of Bridget’s aunt was but tri- - . 
fling. The ceremony took place in the cabin of the vessel 
just named, which, now that the captain was ashore in his 
own house, Mark had all to himself, no second-mate having 
been shipped, and which was by no means an inappropriate 
place for the nuptials of a pair like that which our young 
people turned out to be, in the end. 

The Rancocus, though not a large, was a very fine, 
Philadelphia-built ship, then the best vessels of the coun- 
try. She was of a little less than four hundred tons in 
measurement, but she had a very neat and commodious 
poop-cabin. Captain Crutchely had a thrifty wife, who 
had contributed her full share to render her husband com- 
fortable, and Bridget thought that the room in which she 
was united to Mark was one of the prettiest she had ever 
seen. The reader, however, is not to imagine it a cabin 
ornamented with marble columns, rosewood, and the ma- 
ples, as so often happens nowadays. No such extrava- 
gance was dreamed of fifty years ago; but, as far as judi- 
cious arrangements, neat joiner’s work, and appropriate 
furniture went, the cabin of the Rancocus was a very re- 
spectable little room. The circumstance that it was on * 
2 


18 


THE CRATER. 


deck contributed largely to its appearance and comfort, 
sunken cabins, or those below decks, being necessaril}^ 
much circumscribed in small, ships, in consequence of being 
placed in a part of the vessel that is contracted in its 
dimensions under water, in order to help their sailing 
qualities. 

The witnesses of the union of our hero and heroine 
were the female friend of Bridget named, the 'officiating 
clergyman, and one seaman who had sailed with the bride* 
groom in all his voyages, and who was now retained on 
board the vessel as a ship-keeper, intending to go out in 
her again, as soon as she should be ready for sea. The 
name of this mariner was Betts, or Bob Betts as he was 
commonly called ; and as he acts a conspicuous part in the 
events to be recorded, it may be well to say a word or two 
more of his history and character. Bob Betts was a Jer- 
seyman ; or, as he would have pronounced the word him- 
self, a Jarseyman — in the American meaning of the word, 
however, and not in tlie English. Bob was born in Cape 
May County, and in the State of New Jersey, United States 
of America. At the period of which we are now writing, 
hC; must have been about five-and-thirty, and seemingly a 
confirmed bachelor. The windows of Bob’s father’s house 
looked out upon the Atlantic Ocean, and he snuffed sea 
air from the hour of his birth. At eight years of age he 
was placed, as cabin-boy, on board a coaster; and from 
that time down to the moment when he witnessed the mar- 
riage ceremony between Mark and Bridget, he had been a 
sailor. Throughout the whole war of the Revolution Bob 
had served in the navy, in some vessel or other, and with 
great good luck, never having been made a prisoner of war. 
In connection with this circumstance was one of the beset- 
ting weaknesses of his character. As often happens to 
men of no very great breadth of views, Bob had a notion 
that that which he had so successfully escaped, namely, 
captivity, other men too might have escaped had they been 
equally as clever. Thus it was that he had an ill-con- 
cealed, or only half-concealed contempt for such seamen as 
• suffered themselves, at any time or under any circum- 


THE CRATER. 


stances to fall into the enemy’s hands. On all other sub- 
jects Bob was not only rational, but a very discreet and 
shrewd fellow, though on that he was often harsh, and 
sometimes absurd. But the best men have their weakness, 
and this was Bob Betts’s. 

Captain Crutchely had picked up Bob just after the 
peace of 1783, and had kept him with him ever since. It 
was to Bob that he had committed the instruction of Mark, 
when the latter first joined the ship, and from Bob the 
youth had got his earliest notions of seamanship. Li his 
calling Bob was full of resources, and, as often happens 
with the American sailor, he was even handy at a great 
many other things, and particularly so with whatever re- 
lated to practical mechanics. Then he was of vast phys- 
ical fo^rce, standing six feet two, in his stockings, and was 
round-built and solid. Bob had one sterling quality — he 
was as fast a friend as ever existed. In this respect he 
was a model of fidelity, never seeing a fault in those he 
loved, or a good quality in those he disliked. His attach- 
ment to Mark was signal, and he looked on the promotion 
of the young man much as he would have regarded prefer- 
ment that befell himself. In the last voyage he had told 
the people in the forecastle that young Mark Woolston 
would make a thorough sea-dog in time, and now he had 
got to be Mr. Woolston, he expected great things of him. 
“ The happiest, day of my life will be that on which I can 
ship in a craft commanded by Captain Mark Woolston. I 
teached him, myself, how to break the first sea-biscuit he 
ever tasted, and next day he could do it as well as any on 
us ! You see how handy and quick he is about a vessel’s 
decks, shipmates; a ra’al rouser at a weather-earin’ — well, 
when he first come aboard here, and that was little more 
than two years ago, the smell of tar would almost make 
him swound away.” The latter assertion was one of Bob’s 
embellishments, for Mark was never either lackadaisical or 
very delicate. The young man cordially returned Bob’s 
regard, and the two were sincere friends without any 
ph rases on the subject. 

Bob Betts was the only male witness of the marriage 


20 


THE CRATER. 


between Mark Woolston and Bridget Yardley, with the 
exception ot the officiating clergyman ; as Mary Bromley 
was the only female. Duplicate certificates, however, were 
given to the young couple, Mark placing his in his writing- 
desk, and Bridget hers in the bosom of her dress. Five 
minutes after the ceremony was ended, 'the whole party 
separated, the girls returning to their respective residences, 
and the clergyman going his way, leaving the niate and the 
ship-keeper together on the vessel’s deck. The latter did 
not speak, so long as he saw the bridegroom’s eyes fastened 
on the light form of the bride, as the latter went swiftly 
up the retired wharf where the ship was lying, on her way 
to Front Street, accompanied by her young friend. But, 
no sooner had Bridget turned a corner, and Bob saw that 
the attraction was no longer in view, than he thought it 
becoming to put in a word. 

“ A trim-built and light-sailing craft, Mr. Woolston,” he 
said, turning over the quid in his mouth ; “ one of these 
days she’ll make a noble vessel to command.” 

“ She is my captain, and ever will be, Bob,” returned 
Mark. “ But you’ll be silent concerning what has 
passed.” 

“ Aye, aye, sir. It is not my business to keep a log for 
all the women in the country to chatter about, like so many 
monkeys that have found a bag of nuts. But what was 
the meaning of the parson’s saying, ‘ with all my worldly 
goods I thee endow ; ’ does that make you any richer, or 
any poorer, sir ? ” 

‘‘ Neither,” answei’ed Mark, smiling. “ It leaves me 
just where I was. Bob, and where I am likely to be for 
some time to come, I fear.” 

“ And has the young woman nothing herself, sir ? Some- 
times a body picks up a comfortable chestful with these 
sort of things, as they tell me, sir.” 

“ I believe Bridget is as poor as I am myself. Bob, and 
that is saying all that can be said on such a point. How- 
ever, I’ve secured her now, and two years hence I’ll claim 
her, if she has not a second gown to wear. I dare say the 
old man will be fir turning her adrift with as little as pos- 
dbie.” 


THE CRATER. 


21 


All this was a proof of Mark’s entire disinterestedness. 
Pie did not know that his young bride had quite thirty 
thousand dollars in reversion, or in one sense in possession, 
although she could derive no benefit from it until she was 
of age, or married, and past her eighteenth year. This 
fact her husband did not learn for several days after his 
marriage, when his bride communicated it to him, with a 
proposal that he should quit the sea and remain with her 
for life. Mark was very much in love, but this scheme 
scarce afforded him the satisfaction that one might have 
expected. He was attached to his profession, and scarce 
relished the thought of being dependent altogether on his 
wife for the means of subsistence. The struggle between 
love and pride was great, but Mark, at length, yielded to 
Bridget’s blandishments, tenderness, and tears. They could 
only meet at the house of Mary Bromley, the bridesmaid, 
but then the interviews between them were as frequent as 
Mark’s duty would allow. The result was that Bridget 
prevailed, and the young husband went up to Bristol and 
candidly related all that had passed, thus revealing, in less 
than a week, a secret which it was intended should remain 
hid for at least two years. 

Doctor Woolston was sorely displeased, at first ; but the 
event had that about it which would be apt to console a 
parent. Bridget was not only young, and affectionate,' and 
beautiful, and truthful, but, according to the standard of 
Bristol, she was rich. There was consolation in all this, 
notwithstanding professional rivalry and personal dislikes. 
We are not quite certain that he did not feel a slight grat- 
ification at the thought of his son’s enjoying the fortune 
which his rival had received from his wife, and which, but 
for the will of the grandfather, would have been enjoyed 
by that rival himself. Nevertheless, the good doctor did 
his duty in the premises. He communicated the news of 
the marriage to Doctor Yardley in a very civilly-worded 
note, which left a fair opening for a settlement of all diffi- 
culties, had the latter been so pleased. The latter did not 
so please, however, but exploded in a terrible burst of pas- 
sion, which almost carried him off in a fit of apoplexy. 


22 


THE CRATER. 


Escaping all physical dangers, in the end, Doctor Yard-pi 
ley went immediately to Philadelphia, and brought histj 
daughter home. Both Mark and Bridget now felt that! 
they had offended against one of the simplest commands of|i 
Gpd. They had not honored their father and their mother, 'A 
and even thus early came the consciousness of their offense. i 
It was in Mark’s power, however, to go and claim his wife,|l] 
and remove her to his father’s house, notwithstanding his k 
minority and that of Bridget. In this last respect the lawL 
offered no obstacle; but the discretion of Doctor WoolstoiiH 
did. This gentleman, through the agency of a common j I 
friend, had an interview with his competitor, and theyH 
talked the matter over in a tolerably composed and reason- i! 
able temper. Both the parents, as medical men, agreed < 
that it would be better that the young couple should not 
live together for two or three years, the very tender age 
of Bridget, in particular, rendering this humane, as well as |i 
discreet. Nothing was said of the fortune, which mollified i 
Doctor Yardley a good deal, since he would be left to | 
manage it, or at least to receive the income so long as no 
legal claimant interfered with his control. Elderly gentle 
men submit very easily to this sort of influence. Then, 
Doctor Woolston was exceedingly polite, and spoke to his 
rival of a difficult case in his own practice, as if indirectly 
to ask an opinion of his competitor. All this contributed 
to render the interview more amicable than had been hoped, 
and the parties separated, if not "friends, at least with au 
understanding on the subject of future proceedings. 

It was decided that Mark should continue in the Banco- 
cus for another voyage. Jt was known the ship was to 
proceed to some of the islands of the Pacific, in quest of a 
cargo of sandal-wood and beche-de-mer, for the Chinese 
market, and that her next absence from home would be 
longer, even, than her last. By the time the vessel re- 
turned Mark would be of age, and fit to command a ship 
himself, should it be thought expedient for him to continue 
in his profession. During the period the vessel still re- 
mained in port, Mark was to pay occasional visits to his 
wife, though not to live with her ; but the young couple 


THE CRATER. 


23 


■night correspond by letter, as often as they pleased. Such 
»vas an outline of the treaty made between the high con- 
tracting parties. 

Ill making these arrangements, Doctor Yardley was 
partly influenced by a real paternal interest in the welfare 
of his daughter, who he thought altogether too young to en- 
ter on the duties and cares of the married life. Below the 
surface, however, existed an indefinite hope that something 
might yet occur to prevent the consummation of this most 
unfortunate union, as he deemed the marriage to be, and 
thus enable him to get rid of the hateful connection alto- 
gether. How this was to happen, the worthy doctor cer- 
tainly did not know. This was because he lived in 1796, 
instead of in 1847. Nowadays, nothing is easier tlian to 
separate a man from his wife, unless it be to obtain civic 
honors for a murderer. Doctor Yardley, at the present 
moment, would have coolly gone to work to get up a lam- 
entable tale about his daughter’s fortune, and youth, and 
her not knowing her own mind when she married, and a 
ship’s cabin, and a few other embellishments of that sort, 
when the worthy and benevolent statesmen who compose 
the different legislatures of this vast Union would have 
been ready to break their necks, in order to pass a bill of 
divorce. Had there been a child or two, it would have 
made no great difference, for means would have been de- 
vised to give the custody of them to the mother. This 
would have been done, quite likely, for the first five years 
of the lives of the dear little things, because the children 
would naturally require a mother’s care ; and afterwards, 
because tlie precocious darlings, at the mature age of seven, 
would declare, in open court, that they really loved “ma” 
more that they did “ pa ! ” To write a little plainly on a 
very important subject, we are of opinion that a new name 
ought to be adopted for the form of government which is 
so fast creeping into this country. New things require 
new names ; and, were Solomon now living, we will vent- 
ure to predict two things of him, namely, he would change 
his mind on the subject of novelties, and he would never 
gp to Congress. As for the new name, we would respect- 


24 


THE CRATER. 


fully suggeafe’tliat of Gossipian, in lieu of that of Republi- 
can, gossip fast becoming the lever that moves everything | 
in the land. The newspapers, true to their instincts of 
consulting the ruling tastes, deal much more in gossip than ij 
they deal in reason ; the courts admit it as evidence ; the j 
juries receive it as fact, as well as the law ; and as for the i 
legislatures, let a piteous tale but circulate freely in the 
lobbies, and bearded men, like Juliet when a child, as de- 
scribed by her nurse, will “ stint and cry, ay ! ” In a 
word, principles and proof are in much less esteem than 
assertions and numbers, backed with enough of which, any- 
thing may be made to appear as legal, or even constitu- 
tional. 

But neither of our doctors entered into all these matters. 
It was enough for them that the affair of the marriage was 
disposed of, for a time at least, and things were permitted 
to drop into their ancient channels. The intercourse be- I 
tween Bridget and Anne was renewed, just as if nothing I 
had happened, and Mark’s letters to his virgin bride were 
numerous, and filled with passion. The ship was “ taking 
in,” and he could only leave her late on Saturday after- 
noons, but each Sunday he contrived to pass in Bristol. 
On such occasions he saw his charming wife at church, and 
he walked with her in the fields, along with Anne and a 
favored admirer of hers, of an afternoon, returning to town 
in season to be at his post on the opening of the hatches, 
of a Monday morning. 

In less than a month after the premature marriage be- 
tween Mark Woolston and Bridget Yardley, the Ranco- 
cus cleared for the Pacific and Canton. The bridegroom 
found one day to pass in Bristol, and Doctor Yardley so 
far pitied his daughter’s distress, as to consent that the two 
girls should go to town, under his own care, and see the 
young man off. This concession was received with the 
deepest gratitude and made the young people momenta- 
rily very happy. The doctor even consented to visit the 
ship, which Captain Crutchely, laughing, called St. Mark’s 
Chapel, in consequence of the religious rite which had been 
performed on board her. Mrs. Crutchely was there, on 


THE CKATER. 


25 


the occasion of this visit, attending to her husband’s com- 
forts by fitting curtains to his berth, and looking after 
matters in general in the cabin ; and divers jokes were 
ventured by the honest ship-master, in making his com- 
ments on, and in giving his opinion of the handiwork of 
his own consort. He made Bridget blush more than once, 
though her enduring tenderness in behalf of Mark induced 
her to sit out all the captain’s wit, rather than shorten a 
visit so precious one moment. 

The final parting was an hour of bitter sorrow. Even 
Mark’s young heart, manly and much disposed to do his 
duty as he was, was near breaking ; while Bridget almost 
dissolved in tears. They could not but think how long 
that separation was to last, though they did not anticipate 
by what great and mysterious events it was to be pro-, 
longed. It was enough for them that they were to live 
asunder two whole years ; and two whole years appear 
like an age to those who have not yet lived their four 
lustrums. But the final moment must and did arrive, and 
the young people were compelled to tear themselves asun- 
der, though the parting was like that of soul and body. 
The bride hung on the bridegroom’s neck, as the tendril 
clings to its support, until removed by gentle violence. 

Bridget did not give up her hold upon Mark so long as 
even liis vessel remained in sight. She went with Anne, 
in a carriage, as low as the Point, and saw the Rancocus 
pass swiftly down the river, on this its fourth voyage, 
bearing those in her who as little dreamed of their fate, as 
the unconscious woods and metals themselves, of which the 
ship was constructed. Mark felt his heart beat when he 
saw a woman’s handkerchief waving to him from the shore, 
and a fresh burst of tenderness nearly unmanned him, 
when, by the aid of the glass, he recognized the sweet 
countenance and fairy figure of Bridget. Ten minutes 
later, distance and interposing objects separated that young 
couple for many a weary day. 

A few days at sea restored the equanimity of Mark’s 
feelings, while the poignant grief of Bridget did not fail to 
receive the solace which time brings to sorrows of every 


26 


THE CRATER. 


degree and nature. They thought of each other often,! 
and tenderly ; but the pain of parting over, they both be-; 
gan to look forward to the joys of meeting, with the buoy-1 
ancy and illusions that hope is so apt to impart to the; 
bosoms of the young and inexperienced. Little did either 
dream of what was to occur before their eyes were to he 
again gladdened with the sight of their respective forms, ij 

Mark found in his state-room — for, in the Raiicocus,| 
the cabin was fitted with four neat little state-rooms, one 
for the captain, and two for the mates, with a fourtli for 
the supercargo — many proofs of Bridget’s love and care. 
Mrs. Crutchely herself, though so much longer experi- 
enced, had scarcely looked after the captain’s comfort 
with more judgment, and certainly not with greater solic- 
itude, than this youthful bride had expended on her 
bridegroom’s room. In that day, artists were not very 
numerous in America, nor is it very probable that Doctor 
Yardley would have permitted his daughter to take so de- 
cided a step as to sit for her miniature for Mark’s posses- 
sion ; but she had managed to get her profile cut, and to 
have it framed, and the mate discovered it placed carefully 
among his effects, when only a week out. From this pro- | 
file Mark derived the greatest consolation. It was a good | 
one, and Bridget happened to have a face that would tell I 
in that sort of thing, so that the husband had no difficulty 
in recognizing the wife, in this little image. There it was, 
with the very pretty slight turn of the head to one side,, 
that in Bridget was both natural and graceful. Mark 
spent hours in gazing at and in admiring this inanimate " 
shadow of his bride, which never failed to recall to him 
all her grace, and nature, and tenderness and love, though 
It could not convey any direct expression of her animation 
and spirit. 

It is said ships have no Sundays. The meaning of 
this is merely that a vessel must perform her work, w’eek- 
days and Sabbaths, day and night, in fair or foul. The 
Rancocus formed no exception to the rule, and on she 
traveled, having a road before her that it would require ^ 
months ere the end of it could be found. It is not our 


THK CRATER. 


27 


intention to dwell on the details of this long voyage, for 
two reasons. One is the fact that most voyages to the 
southern extremity of the American continent are marked 
by the same incidents ; and the other is, that we have 
much other matter to relate, that must be given with great 
attention to minutiae, and which we think will have much 
more interest with the reader. 

Captain Crutchely touched at Rio for supplies, as is cus- 
'omary; and, after passing a week in that most delightful 
of all havens, went his way. The passage round the 
Horn was remarkable neither way. It could not be called 
a very boisterous one, neither was the weather unusually 
mild. Ships do double this cape, occasionally, under their 
top-gallant sails, and we have heard of one vessel that did 
not furl her royals for several days, while off tliat formi- 
dable headland ; but these cases form the exception and 
not the rule. The Rancocus was under close-reefed top- 
sails for the better part of a fortnight, in beating to the 
southward and westward, it blowing very fresh the whole 
time ; and she might have been twice as long struggling 
with the southwesterly gales, but for the fortunate circum- 
stance of the winds veering so far to the southward as to 
permit her to lay her course, when she made a great run 
to the westward. When the wind again hauled, as haul it 
was almost certain to do, Captain Crutchely believed him- 
self in a meridian that would admit of his running with 
m easy bow-line, on the larboard tack. No one but a 
sailor can understand the effect of checking the weather- 
braces, if it be only for a few feet, and of getting a 
weather-leach to stand without “ swigging out ” on its bow- 
line. It has much the same influence on the progress of 
a ship that an eloquent speech has on the practice of an 
advocate, a great cure or a skillful operation on that of a 
medical man, or a lucky hit in trade on the fortunes of the 
young merchant. Away all go alike, if not absolutely 
with flowing sheets, easily, swiftly, and with less of labor 
than was their wont. Thus did it now prove with the 
good ship Rancocus. Instead of struggling hard with the 
seas to get three knots ahead, she now made her six, and 


28 


THE CRATER. 


kept all, or nearly all, she made. When she saw the land l 
again, it was found there was very little to spare, but that i 
little sufficed. The vessel passed to windward of every- 
thing, and went on her way rejoicing, like any other that 
had been successful in a hard and severe struggle. A fort- 
night later, the ship touched at Valparaiso. 

The voyage of the Rancocus may now be said to have 
commenced in earnest. Hitherto she had done little but 
make her way across the endless waste of waters ; but now 
she had the real business before her to execute. A con- 
siderable amount of freight, which had been brought on 
account of the Spanish government, was discharged, and 
the vessel filled up her water. Certain supplies of food 
that was deemed useful in cases of scurvy were obtained, 
and after a delay of less than a fortnight the ship once 
more put to sea. 

In the year 1796 the Pacific Ocean was by no means 
as familiar to navigators as it is to-day. Cooke had made 
his celebrated voyages less than twenty years before, and \ 
the accounts of them were then before the world; but| 
even Cooke left a great deal to be ascertained, more es-l 
pecially in the way of details. The first inventor, or dis-l 
coverer of anything, usually gains a great name, though! 
it is those who come after him that turn his labors to ac- i 
count. Did we know no more of America to-day than j 
was known to Columbus, our knowledge would be very^ 
limited, and the benefits of his vast enterprise still in their i 
infancy. j 

Compared with its extent, perhaps, and keeping in view } 
its ordinary weather, the Pacific can hardly be considered j 
a dangerous sea ; but he who will cast his eyes over its 1 
chart will at once ascertain how much more numerous are 
its groups, islands, rocks, shoals, and reefs than those of; 
the Atlantic. Still, the mariners unhesitatingly steered 
out into its vast waters, and none with less reluctance and 
fewer doubts than those of America. 

For nearly two months did Captain Crutchely, after 
quitting Valparaiso, hold his way into the depths of that! 
mighty sea, in search of the islands he had been directed] 


THE CKATER. 


29 


to ihid. Sandal-wood was his aim, a branch of commerce, 
bj" the way, which ought never to be pursued by any 
Christian man, or Christian nation, if what we hear of its 
uses in China be true. There it is said to be burned as 
incense before idols, and no higher offense can be com- 
mitted by any human being than to be principal or acces- 
sary, in any manner or way, to the substitution of any 
created thing for the ever-living God. In after-life Mark 
Woolston often thought of this, when reflection succeeded 
to action, and when he came to muse on the causes which 
may have led to his being the subject of the wonderful 
events that occurred in connection with his own fortunes. 
We have now reached a part of our narj’ative, however, 
when it becomes necessary to go into details, which we 
shall defer to the commencement of a new chapter. 


80 


IHE CRATER. 


CHAPTER III. 

God of the dark and heavy deep ! I 

The waves lie sleeping on the sands, _ '] 

Till the fierce trumpet of the storm 

Hath summoned up their thundering bands, 

Then the white sails are dashed like foam, 

Or hurry trembling o’er the seas, 

Till calmed by Thee, the sinking gale 
Serenely breathes, Depart in peace. 

Peabody. 

The day that preceded the night of which we are about 
to speak, was misty, with the wind fresh at east-south- 
east. The Rancocus was running oil southwest, and con- 
sequently was going with the wind free. Captain Crutchely 
had one failing, and it was a very bad one for a ship-mas- 
ter ; he would drink rather too much grog at his dinner. 
At all other times he might have been called a sober 
man ; but at dinner he would gulp down three or four , 
glasses of rum and water. In that day rum was much 
used in America, far more than brandy ; and every dinner- 
table that had the smallest pretension to be above that of . 
the mere laboring man, had at least a bottle of one of 
these liquors on it. Wine was not commonly seen at the 
cabin table; or, if seen, it was in those vessels that had ; 
recently been in the vine-growing countries, and on special 
occasions. Captain Crutchely was fond of the pleasures 
of the table in another sense. His eating was on a level 
with his drinking ; and for pigs, and poultry, and vegeta- 
bles that would keep at sea, his ship was always a little 
remarkable. 

On the day in question, it happened to be the birthday ^ 
of Mrs. Crutchely, and the captain had drunk even a little ^ 
more than common. Now, when a man is in the habit j 
of drinking rather more than is good for him, an addition ] 
of a little more than common is very apt to upset him. j 


THE CRATER. 


31 


Such, in sober truth, was the case with the commander of 
the Rancocus when he left the dinner-table, at the time to 
which there is particular allusion. Mark, himself, was 
perfectly sober. The taste of rum was unpleasant to him, 
nor did his young blood and buoyant spirits crave its 
effects. If he touched it at all, it was in very small quan- 
tities, and greatly diluted with water. He saw the present 
condition of his superior, therefore, with regret ; and this 
so much the more, from the circumstance that an unpleas- 
ant report was prevailing in the ship, that white water had 
been seen ahead, during a clear moment, by a man who 
had just come from aloft. This report the mate repeated 
to the captain, accompanying it with a suggestion that it 
might be well to shorten sail, round-to and sound. But 
Captain Crutchely treated the report with no respect, 
swearing that the men were always fancying they were 
going ashore on coral, and that the voyage would last for- 
ever, did he comply with all their conceits of this nature. 
Unfortunately the second mate was an old sea-dog, who 
owed his present inferior condition to his being a great 
deal addicted to the practice in which his captain indulged 
only a little, and he had been sharing largely in the hospi- 
tality of the cabin that afternoon, it being his watch be- 
low. This man supported the captain in his contempt for 
the rumors and notions of the crew, and between them 
Mark found himself silenced.^ 

Our young officer felt very uneasy at the account of the 
sailor who had reported white water ahead, for he was one 
of the best men in the ship, and altogether unlikely to say 
that which was not true. It being now six oclock in the 
evening, and the second mate having taken charge of the 
watch, Mark went up into the fore-top-gallant cross-trees 
himself, in order to get the best look ahead that he could 
before the night set in. It wanted but half an hour, or so, 
of sunset, when the young man took his station in the 
cross-trees, the royal not being set. At first, he could 
discern nothing ahead, at a distance greater than a mile, 
on account of the mist ; but, just as the sun went below the 
warers it lighted up to the westward, and Mark then plainly 


32 


THK CKATER. 


s.‘iw what he was perfectly satisfied must be breakers, ex- 
tending for several miles directly across the vessel’s track ! ! 

Such a discovery required decision, and the young man i 
shouted out — 

. “ Breakers ahead ! ” 

This 'Cry, coming from his first officer, startled even 
Captain Crutchely, who was recovering a little from the 
effect of his potations, though it was still treated with con- 
tempt by the second mate, who had never forgiven one as 
young as Mark for getting a berth that he fancied due to 
his own greater age and experience. He laughed openly 
at this second report of breakers, at a point in the ocean 
where the chart laid down a clear sea ; but the captain 
knew that the charts could only tell him what was known 
at the time they were made, and he felt disposed to treat 
his first officer, young as he was, with more respect than I 
the second mate. All hands were called in consequence, I 
and sail was shortened. Mark came down to assist in this ] 
duty, while Captain Crutchely himself went aloft to look 
out for the breakers. They passed each other in the top, 
the latter desiring his mate to bring the ship by the wind, 
on the larboard tack, or with her head to the southward, 
as soon as he had the sail sufficiently reduced to do so with 
safety. 

For a few minutes after he reached the deck, Mark was 
fully employed in executing his orders. Sail was shortened 
with great rapidity, the men working with zeal and alarm, 
for they believed their messmate when the captain had not. 
Although the vessel was under top-mast studding-sails when 
the command to take in the canvas was given, it was not 
long before Mark had her under lier three topsails, and 
these with two reefs in them, and the ship on an easy 
bowline, with her head to the southward. When all this 
was done the young man felt a good deal of relief, for the 
danger he had seen was ahead, and this change of course 
brought it nearly abeam. It is true, the breakers were 
still to leeward, and in so much most dangerously situated, 
but the wind did not blow strong enough to prevent the ; 
ship from weathering them, provided time was taken by ■ 


THE CRATER. 


the forelock. The Rancocus was a good, weatherly ship, 
not was there sufficient sea on to make it at all difficult 
for her to claw off a lee shore. Desperate indeed is the 
situation of the vessel that has rocks or sands under her 
lee, with the gale blowing in her teeth, and heavy seas 
sending her bodily and surely, however slowly, on the very 
breakers she is struggling to avoid ! Captain Crutchely 
had not been aloft five minutes before he hailed the deck, 
and ordered Mark to send Bob Betts up to the cross-trees. 
Bob had the reputation of being the brightest lookout in 
the vessel, and was usually employed when land was about 
to be approached, or a sail was expected to be made. He 
went up the fore-rigging like a squirrel, and was soon at 
the captain’s side, both looking anxiously to leeward. A 
few minutes after the ship had hauled by the wind, both 
came down, stopping in the top, however, to take one more 
look to leeward. 

The second mate stood waiting the further descent of 
the captain, with a sort of leering look of contempt on his 
hard, well-dyed features, which seemed to anticipate that 
it would soon be known that Mark’s white water had lost 
its color, and become blue water once more. But Cap- 
tain Crutchely did not go as far as this, when he got down. 
He admitted that he had seen nothing that he could very 
decidedly say was breakers, but that, once or twice, when 
it lighted up a little, there had been a gleaming along the 
western horizon which a good deal puzzled him. It might 
be white water, or it might be only the last rays of the 
setting sun tipping the combs of the regular seas. Bob 
Betts, too, was as much at fault as his captain, and a sar- 
castic remark or two of Hillson, the second mate, were fast 
brinmufj Mark’s breakers into discredit. 

o o 

“Jest look at the chart. Captain Crutchely,” put in 
Hillson, “ a regular Tower Hill chart as ever was made, 
and you’ll see there can be no white water hereabouts. 
If a man is to shorten sail and haul his wind at every dead 
whale he falls in with, in these seas, his owners will have 
the balance on the wrong side of the book at the end of 
the v’y’ge ! ” 


% 


34 


THE CRATER. 


This told hard against Mark, and considerably in Hill- 
son’s favor. 

“ And could you see nothing of breakers ahead, Bob ? ” 
demanded Mark, with an emphasis on the “you” which 
pretty plainly implied that the young man was not so much 
surprised that the captain had not seen them. 

“ Not a bit of it, Mr. Woolston,” answered Bob, hitch- 
ing up his trowsers, “ and I’d a pretty good look ahead 
too.” ‘ 

This made still more against Mark, and Captain Crutch- 
ely sent for the chart. Over this map he and the second 
mate pondered with a sort of muzzy sagacity, when they 
came to the conclusion that a clear sea must prevail around 
them, in all directions, for a distance exceeding a thousand 
miles. A great deal is determined, in any case of a di- 
lemma, when it is decided that this or that fact must be so. 
Captain Crutchely would not have arrived at this positive 
conclusion so easily, had not his reasoning powers been so 
much stimulated by his repeated draughts of rum and water 
that afternoon ; all taken, as he said and believed, not so 
much out of love for the beverage itself, as out of love for 
Mrs. John Crutchel3^ Nevertheless, our captain was accus- 
tomed to take care of a ship, and he was not yet in a 
condition to forget all his duties, in circumstances so crit- 
ical. As Mark solemnly and steadily repeated his own 
belief that there were breakers ahead, he so far yielded to 
the opinions of his youthful chief mate as to order the deep- 
sea up, and to prepare to sound. 

This operation of casting the deep-sea lead is not done 
in a moment, but, on board a merchant vessel, usually occu- 
pies from a quarter of an hour to twenty minutes. The 
ship must first be hove-to, and her way ought to be as near 
lost as possible before the cast is made. Then the getting 
along of the line, the stationing of the men, and the sound- 
ing and hauling in again, occupy a good many minutes. 
By the time it was all over, on this occasion, it was getting 
to be night. The misty, drizzling weather threatened to 
make the darkness intense, and Mark felt more and more 
impressed with the danger in which the ship was placed. 


THE CRATER. 


35 


Tlie cast of the lead produced no other result than the 
certainty that bottom was not to be found with four hun- 
dred fathoms of line out. No one, however, not even the 
muzzy Hillson, attached much importance to this fact, ‘ji- 
asmuch as it was known that the coral reefs often rise like 
perpendicular walls, in the ocean, having no bottom to be 
found within a cable’s-length of them. Then Mark did 
not believe the ship to be within three leagues of the 
breakers he had seen, for they had seemed, both to him and 
to the seaman who had first reported them, to be several 
leagues distant. One on an elevation like that of the 
‘top-gallant cross-trees, could see a long way, and the white 
water had appeared to Mark to be on the very verge of 
the western horizon, even as seen from his lofty lookout. 

After a further consultation with his officers, during 
which Hillson had not spared his hits at his less expe- 
rienced superior, ^Captain Crutchely came to a decision, 
which might be termed semi-prudent. There is nothing 
that a seaman more dislikes than to be suspected of extra- 
nervousness on the subject of doubtful dangers of this sort. 
Seen and acknowledged, he has no scruples about doing 
his best to avoid them ; but so long as there is an uncer- 
tainty connected with their existence at all, that miserable 
feeling of vanity which renders us all so desirous to be 
more than nature ever intended us for, inclines most men 
to appear indifferent even while they dread. The wisest 
thing Captain Crutchely could have done, placed in the 
circumstances in which he now found himself, would have 
been to stand off and on, under easy canvas, until the re- 
turn of light, when he might have gone ahead on his course 
with some confidence, and a great deal more of safety. 
I5ut there would have been an air of concession to the 
power of an unknown danger that conflicted with his pride, 
in such a course, and tli^ -old and . well-tried ship-master 
did not like to give th e]^ uncertain this advantage over 
him. He decided tJierefore to iitand on, with his topsails 
reefed, keeping bright loo^k outs ahead, - and having his 
courses in the brails, Te^dy for getting the tacks down to 
claw off to windward, should it prove to be necessary. 


36 


THE CRATER. 


With this plan Mark was compelled to comply, there being 
no appeal from the decrees of the autocrat of the quarter- 
deck. 

As soon as the decision of Captain Crutchely was made, 
the helm was put up, and the ship kept off to her course. 
It was true, that under double-reefed topsails, and jib, 
which was all the canvas set, there was not half the danger 
there would have been under their former sail ; and when 
Mark took charge of the watch, as he did soon after, or at 
eight o’clock, he was in hopes, by means of vigilance, still 
to escape the danger. The darkness, which was getting 
to be very intense, was now the greatest and most imme- 
diate source of his apprehensions. Could he only get a 
glimpse of the sea a cable’s-length ahead, he would have 
felt vast relief ; but even that small favor was denied him. 
By the time the captain and second mate had turned in, 
which each did after going below and taking a stiff glass 
of rum and water in his turn, it was so dark our young 
mate could not discern the combing of the waves a hundred 
yards from the ship, in any direction. This obscurity was 
owing to the drizzle that filled the atmosphere, as well as 
to the clouds that covered the canopy above that lone and 
wandering ship. 

As for Mark, he took his station between the knight- 
heads, where he remained most of the watch, nearly strain- 
ing the eyes out of his head, in the effort to penetrate the 
gloom, and listening acutely to ascertain if he might not 
catch some warning roar of the breakers, that he felt so 
intimately persuaded must be getting nearer and nearer at 
each instant. As midnight approached, came the thought 
of Hillson’s taking his place, drowsy and thick-headed as 
he knew he must be at that hour. At length Mark actu- 
ally fancied he heard the dreaded sounds ; the warning, 
however, was not ahead, but well on his starboard beam. 
This he thought an ample justification for departing from 
his instructions, and he instantly issued an order to put 
the helm hard a-starboard, so as to bring the vessel up to 
the wind, on the contrary tack. Unfortunately, as the 
result proved, it now became his imperative duty to report 


THE CRATER. 


^7 


to Captain Crutcliely what he had done. For a minute 
01 two the young man thought of keeping silence, to stand 
on his present course, to omit calling the second mate, and 
to say nothing about what he had done, keeping the deck 
himself until light should return. But reflection induced 
him to shrink from the execution of this plan, which would 
have involved him in a serious misunderstanding with both 
his brother officers, who could not fail to hear all that had 
occurred in the night, and who must certainly know, each 
in his respective sphere, that they themselves had been 
slighted. With a slow step, therefore, and a heavy heart, 
Mark went into the cabin to make his report, and to give 
the second mate the customary call. 

It was not an easy matter to awaken either of those 
who slept under the influence of potations as deep as the 
night-caps taken by Captain Crutchely and Mr. Ilillson. 
The latter, in jjiarticular, was like a man in a state of leth- 
argy, and Mark had half a mind to leave him, and make 
his condition an excuse for not having persisted in the 
call. But he succeeded in arousing the captain, who soon 
found the means to bring the second mate to a state of 
semi-con sciousness. 

“ Well, sir,” cried the captain, as soon as fairly awake 
himself, “ what now ? ” 

“ I think I heard breakers abeam, sir, and I have hauled 
up to the southward.” 

A grunt succeeded, which Mark scarce knew how to in- 
terpret. ’ It might mean dissatisfaction, or it might mean 
surprise. As the captain, however, was thoroughly awake, 
and was making ‘his preparations to come out on deck, he 
thought that he had done all that duty required, and he 
returned to his own post. The after-part of the ship was 
now the best situation for watching, and Mark went up on 
the poop, in order to see and hear the better. No lower 
sail being in the way, he could look ahead almost as well 
from that position as if he were forward ; and as for hear- 
ing, it was much the best place of the two, in consequence 
of there being no wash of the sea directly beneath him, as 
was the case when stationed between the knight-heads 


38 


THE CRATER. 


To this post he soon summoned Bob Betts, who belonged f 
to his watch, and with whom he had ever kept up as great! 
an intimacy as the difference in their stations would allowd 

“ Bob, your ears are almost as good as your eyes,” said 
IVIark ; “ have you heard nothing of breakers ? ” 

“ I have, Mr. Woolston, and now own I did see some- 
thing that may have been white water, this arternoon, while 
aloft ; but the captain and second mate seemed so awarse 
to believing in sich a thing, out here in the open Pacific, 
that I got to be awarse, too.” 

“ It was a great fault in a look out not to let what he 
had seen be known,” said Mark, gravely. 

“ I own it, sir ; I own how wrong I was, and have been 
sorry for it ever since. But it’s going right in the wind’s ! 
eye,^ Mr. Woolston, to go ag’in captain and dickey ! ” 

“ But, you now think you have heard breakers — where 
away ? ” 

“ Astarn first ; then ahead ; and, just as you called me 
up on the poop, sir, I fancied they sounded off here, on the 
weather bow.” 

“ Are you serious. Bob ? ” 

“.As I ever was in my life, Mr. Mark. This oversight 
of the arternoon has made me somewhat conscientious, if 
I can be conscientious, and my sight and hearing are now 
both wide awake. It’s my opinion, sir, that the ship is in 
the midst of breakers at this instant, and that we may go 
on ’em at any moment ! ” 

“ The devil it is ! ” exclaimed Captain Crutchely, who 
now appeared on the poop, and who caught the last part 
of Bob Betts’s speech. “ Well, for my part, I hear nothing 
out of the way, and I will swear the keenest-sighted man 
on earth can see nothing.” 

These words were scarcely out of the captain’s mouth, 
and had been backed by a senseless, mocking laugh from 
Hillson, who was still muzzy, and quite as much asleep as 
awake, when the deep and near roar of breakers was most 
unequivocally heard. It came from to windward, too, and 
abeam. This was proof that the ship was actually among 
the breakers when Mark hauled up, and that she was now 


THE CRATER. 


39 


passing a danger to leeward, that she must have previously 
gone by, in running down on her course. The captain, 
without waiting to consult with his cool and clear-headed 
young mate, now shouted for all hands to be called, and 
to “ stand by to ware ship.’’ These orders came out so 
fast, and in so peremptory a manner, that remonstrance 
was out of the question, and Mark set himself at work to 
obey them, in good earnest. He would have tacked in 
preference to waring, and it would have been much wiser 
to do so ; but it was clearly expedient to get the ship on 
the other tack, and he lent all his present exertions to "the 
attainment of that object. Waring is much easier done 
than tacking, certainly ; when it does not blow too fresh, 
and there is not a dangerous sea on, no nautical manoeuvre 
can be more readily effected, though room is absolutely 
necessary to its success. This room was now wanting. 
Just as the ship had got dead before the wind, and was 
flying away to leeward, short as was the sail she was under, 
the atmosphere seemed to be suddenly filled with a strange 
light, the sea became white all around them, and a roar 
of tumbling waters arose, that resembled the sound of a 
small cataract. The ship was evidently in the midst of 
breakers, and the next moment she struck ! 

The intense darkness of the night added to the horrors 
of that awful moment. Nevertheless, the effect was to 
arouse all that there was of manliness and seamanship in 
Captain Crutchely, who from that instant appeared to be 
himself again. His orders were issued coolly, clearly, and 
promptly, and they were obeyed as experienced mariners 
will work at an instant like that. The sails were all 
clewed up, and the heaviest of them were furled. Hillson 
was ordered to clear away an anchor, while Mark was at- 
tending to the canvas. In the mean time, the captain 
watched the movements of the ship. He had dropped a 
lead alongside, and by that he ascertained that they were 
still beating ahead. The thumps were not very hard, and 
the white water was soon left astern, none having washed 
on deck. All this was so much proof that the place on 
which they had struck must have had nearly water enough 


THE CRATER. 


40 

to float the vessel, a fact that the lead itself corroborated.! 
Fifteen feet aft was all the Rancocus wanted, in her actual |l 
trim, and the lead showed a good three fathoms, at times. | 
It was when the ship settled in the troughs of the sea that| 
she felt the bottom. Satisfied that his vessel was likely^ 
to beat over the present difficulty, Captain Crutchely now^ 
gave all his attention to gettmg her anchored as near the,, 
reef, and to leeward of it, as possible. The instant ^^her 
went clear, a result he now expected every moment, he | 
was determined to drop one of his bower anchors, and | 
wait for daylight, before he took any further steps to il 
extricate himself from the danger by which he was sur- ; 
rounded. I 

On the forecastle, the work went on badly, and thither i 
Captain Crutchely proceeded. The second mate scarce i 
knew what he was about, and the captain took charge of 
the duty himself. At the same time he issued an order to ' 
Mark to get up tackles, and to clear away the launch, pre- i 
paratory to getting that boat into the water. Hillson had 
bent the cable wrong, and much of the work had to be 
done over again. As soon as men get excited, as is apt 
to be the case when they find serious blunders made at 
critical moments, they are not always discreet. The pre- 
cise manner in which Captain Crutchely met with the 
melancholy fate that befell him, was never known. It is 
certain that he jumped down on the anchor-stock, the 
anchor being a cock-bill, and that he ordered Mr. Hillson 
off of it. While thus employed, and at an instant when 
the cable was pronounced bent, and the men were in the 
act of getting inboard, the ship made a heavy roll, breakers 
again appeared all around her, the white foam rising nearly 
to the level of her rails. The captain was seen no more. 
There is little doubt that he was washed from the anchor- 
stock, and carried away to leeward, in the midst of the 
darkness of that midnight hour. 

Mark wa^ soon apprised of the change that had oc 
curred, and of the heavy responsibility that now rested 
on his young shoulders. A feeling of horror and of regret 
came over him at first ; but understanding the necessity of 


THE CRATER. 


41 


Belf-command, he aroused himself at once to his duty, and 
gave his orders coolly and with judgment. The first step 
was to endeavor to save the captain. The jolly-boat was 
lowered, and six men got in it and passed ahead of Ihe 
ship, with this benevolent design. Mark stood on the 
bowsprit, and saw them shoot past the bows of the vessel, 
and then, almost immediately, become lost to view in the 
gloomy darkness of the terrible scene. The men never 
reappeared, a common and an unknown fate thus sweeping 
away Captain Crutchely and six of his best men, and all, 
as it might be, in a single instant of time ! 

Notwithstanding these sudden and alarming losses, the 
work went on. Hillson seemed suddenly to become con- 
scious of the necessity of exertion, and by giving his 
utmost attention to hoisting out the launch, that boat was 
got safely into the water. By this time the ship had 
beaten so far over the reef as scarcely to touch at all, and 
Mark had everything ready for letting go his anchors, the 
instant he had reason to believe she was in water deep 
enough to float her. The thumps grew lighter and lighter, 
and the lead-line showed a considerable drift ; so much so, 
indeed, as to require its being hauled in and cast anew 
every minute. Under all the circumstances, Mark ex- 
pected each instant to find himself in four fathoms’ water, 
and he intended to let go the anchor the moment he was 
assured of that fact. In the mean time, he ordered the 
carpenter to sound the pumps. This was done, and the 
ship was reported with only the customary quantity of 
water in the well. As yet her bottom was not injured, 
materially at least. 

While Mark stood with the lead-line in his hand, anx- 
iously watching the drift of the vessel and the depth of 
water, Hillson was employed in placing provisions in the 
launch. There was a small amount of specie in the cabin, 
and this, too, was transferred to the launch; everything 
of that sort being done without Mark’s knowledge, and by 
the second mate’s orders. The former was on the foi'e- 
castle, waiting the proper moment to anchor ; while all of 
the after-part of the ship was at the mercy of the second 


THE CRATER. 


42 

mate, and a gang of the people whom that officer had \ 
gathered around him. 

At length Mark found, to his great delight, that there 
were four good fathoms of water under the ship’s bows, 
though she still hung abaft. He ascertained this fact by 
means of Bob Betts, which true-liearted tar stood by him- 
with a lantern, by swinging which low enough, the marks 
were seen on the lead-line. Foot by foot the ship now 
surged ahead, the seas being so much reduced in size and 
power, by the manner in which they had been broken to 
windward, as not to lift the vessel more than an inch or 
two at a time. After waiting patiently a quarter of an 
hour, Mark believed- that the proper time had come, and 
he o^ave the order to “ let run.” The seaman stationed 
at the stopper obeyed, and down went the anchor. It 
happened, opportunely enough, that the anchor was thus 
dropped just as the keel cleared the bottom, and the cable 
being secured at a short range, after forging ahead for 
enough to tighten the latter, the vessel tended. In swing- 
ing to her anchor, a roller came down upon her, however ; 
one that had crossed the reef without breaking, and broke 
on board her. Mark afterwards believed that the rush 
and weight of this sea, which did no serious harm, fright- 
ened the men into the launch, where Hillson was already 
in person, and that the boat either struck adrift under the 
power of the roller, or that the painter was imprudently 
cast off in the confusion of the moment. He had got in 
as far as the windlass himself, when the sea came aboard ; 
and, as soon as he recovered his sight after the ducking 
he received, he caught a dim view of the launch, driving 
off to leeward, on the top of a wave. Hailing was use- 
less, and he stood gazing at the helpless boat until it be- 
came lost, like everything else that was a hundred yards 
from the ship, in the gloom of night. Even then Mark 
was by no means conscious of the extent of the calamity 
that had befallen him. It was only when he had visited 
cabin, steerage and forecastle, and" called the crew over 
by name, that he reached the grave fact that there was 
no one left on board the Rancocus but Bob Betts and 
himself ! 


THE CRATER. 


43 


As Mark did not know what land was to be found to 
leeward, he naturally enough hoped and expected tliat the 
people in both boats might reach the shore, and be recov- 
ered in the morning ; but he hud little expectation of ever 
seeing Captain Crutchely again. The circumstances, how- 
ever, afforded him little time to reflect on these things, 
and he gave his whole attention, for the moment, to the 
preservation of the ship. Fortunately, the anchor held, 
and, as the wind, which 'had never blown very .heavily, 
sensibly began to lessen, Mark was sanguine in the belief 
it would continue to hold. Captain Crutchely had taken 
the precaution to have^ the cable bitted at a short range 
with a view to keep it, as much as possible, off the bottom ; 
coral being known to cut the hempen cables that were 
altogether in use, in that day, almost as readily as axes. 
In consequence of this bit of foresight, the Rancocus lay 
at a distance of less than forty fathoms from her anchor, 
which Mark knew had been dropped in four fathoms water. 
He now sounded abreast of the main-mast, and ascertained 
that the ship itself was in nine fathoms. This was cheer- 
ing intelligence, and when Bob Betts heard it, he gave it 
as his opinion that all might yet go well with them, could 
they only recover the six men who had gone to leeward in 
the jolly-boat. The launch had carried off nine of their 
crew, which, previously to this night, had consisted of 
nineteen, all told. This suggestfon relieved Mark’s mind 
of a load of care, and he lent himself to the measures nec- 
essary to the continued safety of the vessel, with renewed 
animation and vigor. 

The pump-well was once more sounded, and found to 
be nearly empty. Owing to the nature of the bottom on 
which they had struck, the lightness of the thumps, or the 
strength of the ship herself, it was clear that the vessel 
had thus far escaped without any material injury. For 
tliis advantage Mark was deeply grateful, and could he 
only recover four or five of the people, and find his way 
out into open water, he might hope to live again to see 
America, and to be reunited to his youthful and charming 
bride. 


44 


THE CRATER. 


The weather continued to grow more and more mod- 
erate, and some time before the day returned the clouds 
broke away, the drizzle ceased, and a permanent change 
was to be expected. Mark now found new ground for 
apprehensions, even in these favorable circumstances. He 
supposed that the ship must feel the influence of the tides, 
so near the land, and was afraid she might tail the other 
way, and thus be brought • again over the reef. In order 
■; to obviate this difficulty, he and Bob set to work to get 
• another cable bent, and another anchor clear for letting 
go. As all our readers may not be familiar with ships, it 
may be well to say that vessels, as soon as they quit a coast 
on a long voyage, unbend their cables and send them all 
below, out of the way, while, at the same time, they stow 
their anchors, as it is called ; that is to say, get them from 
under the cat-heads, from which they are usually suspended 
when ready to let go, and where they are necessarily 
altogether on the outside of the vessel, to positions more 
inboard, where they are safer from the force of the waves, 
and better secured. As all the anchors of the Rancocus 
had been thus stowed, until Captain Crutchely got the 
one that was down, off the gunwale, and all the cables 
below, Mark and Bob had labor enough before them to 
occupy several hours, in the job thus undertaken. 


THE CRATER. 


45 


CHAPTER IV. 

Deep in the wave is a coral grove, 

Where the purple mullet and gold fish rove, 

Where the sea-flower spreads its leaves of blue, 

That never are wet with falling dew. 

But in bright and changeful beauty shine, 

Far down in the green and glassy brine. 

Ferctivai^ 

Our young mate and his sole assistant, Bob Betts, had 
Bot about their work on the stream-cable and anchor, the 
lightest and most manageable of all the ground-tackle in 
the vessel. .Both were strong and active, and both were 
expert in the use of blocks, purchases, and handspikes; but 
the day was seen lighting the eastern sky, and the anchor 
was barely off the gunwale, and ready to be stoppered. In 
the meanwhile the ship still tended in the right direction, 
the wind had moderated to a mere royal-breeze, and the 
sea had so far gone down as nearly to leave the vessel 
without motion. As soon as perfectly convinced of the 
existence of this favorable state of things, and of its being 
likely to last, Mark ceased to work, in^ order to wait for 
day, telling Bob to discontinue his exertions also. It was 
fully time, for both of those vigorous and strong-handed 
men were thoroughly fatigued with the toil of that eventful 
morning. 

The reader may easily imagine with what impatience 
our two mariners waited the slow return of light. Each 
minute seemed an hour, and it appeared to them as if the 
night was to last forever. But the earth performed its 
usual revolution, and by degrees sufficient light was ob- 
tained to enable Mark and Bob to examine the state of 
things around them. In order to do this the better, each 
went into a top, looking abroad from those elevations on 
the face of the ocean, the different points of the reef, and 


46 


THE CRATER. 


all that was then and there to be seen. Mark went upj 
forward, while Bob ascended into the main-top. The dis-! 
tance between them was so small that there was no diffi- 
culty in conversing, which they continued to do, as was! 
natural enough to men in their situation. 

The first look that each of our mariners bestowed, after 
he was in his top, was to leeward, which being to the 
westward, was of course yet in the darkest point of tlie 
horizon. They expected to obtain a sight of at least one 
island, and that quite near to them, if not of a group. But 
no land appeared ! It is true that it was still too dark to 
be certain of a fact of this sort, though Mark felt quite 
assured that if land was finally seen, it must be of no great 
extent, and quite low. He called to Bob, to ascertain what 
he thought of- appearances to leeward, his reputation as a , 
look-out being so great. 

“ Wait a few minutes, sir, till we get a bit more day,” 
answered his companion. “ There is a look on the water, 
about a league off here on the larboard quarter, that seems 
as if something would come out of it. But, one tiling can 
be seen plain enough, Mr. Mark, and that’s the breakers. 
There’s a precious line on ’em, and that, too, one within 
another, as makes it wonderful how we ever got through 
’em as well as we did ! ” 

This was true enough, the light on the ocean to wind- 
ward being now sufficient to enable the men to see, in that 
direction, to a considerable distance. It was that solemn 
hour in the morning when objects first grow distinct, ere 
they are touched with the direct rays from the sun, and 
when everything appears as if coming to us fresh and reno- 
vated from the hands of the Creator. The sea had so far 
gone down as to render the breakers much less formidable 
to the eye than when it was blowing more heavily ; but 
this very circumstance made it impossible to mistake their 
positions. In the actual state of the ocean, it was ceitain 
that wherever water broke, there must be rocks or shoals 
beneath ; whereas, in a blow, the combing of an ordinary 
sea might be mistaken for the white water of some hidden 
danger. Many of the rocks, however, lay so low, that the 


THE CRATER. 


47 


heavy, sluggish rollers that came undulating along, scarce 
did more than show faint, feathery lines of white, to indi- 
cate the character of the places across which they were 
passing. Such was now the case with the reef over 
which the ship had beaten, the position of which could 
hardly have been ascertained, or its danger discovered, at 
the distance of half a mile. Others, again, were of a very 
different character, the water still tumbling about them 
like so many little cataracts. This variety was owing to 
the greater depth at which some of the rocks lay than 
others. 

As to the number of the reefs, and the difficulty in get- 
ting through them. Bob was right enough. It often hap- 
pens that there is an inner and an outer reef to the islands 
of the Pacific, particularly to those of coral formation ; but 
Mark began to doubt whether there^was any coral at all 
in the place where the Pancocus lay, in consequence of 
the entire want of regularity in the position of these very 
breakers. They were visible in all directions ; not in con- 
tinuous lines, but in detached parts ; one lying within 
another, as Bob had expressed it, until the eye could not 
reach their xouter limits. How the ship had got so com- 
pletely involved withm their dangerous embraces, without 
going to pieces on a dozen of the reefs, was to him matter 
of wonder ; though it sometimes happens at sea that dan- 
gers are thus safely passed in darkness and fog, that no 
man would be bold enough to encounter in broad daylight 
vand with a full consciousness of their hazards. Such, then, 
had been the sort of miracle by which the Rancocus had 
escaped ; though it was no more easy to see how she was 
to be got out of her present position than it was to see 
how she had got into it. Bob was the first to make a re- 
mark on this particular part of the subject. 

“ It will need a reg’lar branch here, Mr. Mark, to carry 
the old Rancocus clear of all .them breakers to sea again,” 
he cried. “ Our Delaware banks is just so many fools to 
’em, sir ! ” 

“ It is a most serious position for a vessel to be in. Bob,” 
answered Mark, sighing ; “ nor do I see how we are ever 


48 


THE CRATER. 


to get clear of it, even should we get back men enough to' 
handle tlie ship.” . ! 

“ I’m quite of your mind, sir,” answered Bob, taking ! 
out his tobacco-box, and helping himself to -a quid. ‘‘ Nor 
would I be at all surprised, should there turn out to be a 
bit of land to leeward, if you and I was to Robinson Crusoe 
it for the rest of our days. My good mother was always 
most awarse to my following the seas on account of that 
very danger ; most especially from a fear of the savages 
from the islands round about.” 

“ We will look for our boats,” Mark gravely replied, the 
Image of Bridget, just at that instant, appearing before his 
mind with a painful distinctness. 

Both now turned their eyes again to leeward, the first 
direct rays of the sun beginning to illumine the surface of 
the ocean in that quarter. Something like a misty cloud 
had been settled on the water, rather less than a league 
from the ship, in the western board, and had hitherto pre- 
vented a close examination in that part of the horizon. 
The power of the sun, however, almost instantly dispersed 
it, and then, for the first time, Bob fancied he did discover 
something like land. Mark, however, could not make it 
out until he had gone up into the cross-trees, when he, too, 
got a glimpse of what, under all the circumstances, he did 
not doubt was either a portion of the reef that rose above 
the water, or was what might be termed a low, straggling 
island. Its distance from the ship they estimated at rather 
more than two leagues. 

Both Mark and Bob remained aloft near an hour longer, 
or until they had got the best possible view of which their 
position would allow, of everything around the ship. Bob 
went down, and took a glass up to his officer, Mark sweep- 
ing the whole horizon with it, in the anxious wish to make 
out something cheering in connection with the boats. The 
drift of these unfortunate craft must have been towards the 
land, and that he examined with the utmost care. Aided 
by the glass, and his elevation, he got a tolerable view of 
the spot, which certainly promised as little in the way of 
supplies as any other bit of naked reef he had ever seen. 


THE ' CRATER. 


49 


The distance, however, was so great as to prevent his ob- 
taining any certain information on that point. One thing, 
however, he did ascertain, as he feared, with considerable 
accuracy. After passing the glass along the whole of that 
naked rock, he could see nothing on it in motion. Of 
birds there were a good many, more indeed than from the 
extent of the visible reef he might have expected ; but no 
signs of man could be discovered. As the ocean, in all 
directions, was swept by the glass, and this single fragment 
of a reef, which was less than a mile in length, was the 
only thing that even resembled land, the melancholy con- 
viction began to force itself on Mark and Bob, that all, 
their shipmates had perished ! They might have perished 
in one of several ways ; as the naked reef did not lie pre- 
cisely to leeward of the ship, the boats may have driven by 
it, in the deep darkness of the past night, and gone far 
away out of sight of the spot where they had left the ves- 
sel, long ere the return of day. There was just the possi- 
bility that the spars of the ship might be seen by the wan- 
derers, if they were still living, and the faint hope of their 
regaining the vessel, in the course of the day, by means of 
their oars. It was, however, more probable that the boats 
had capsized in some of the numerous fragments of break- 
ers, that were visible even in the present calm condition of 
the ocean, and that all in them had been drowned. The 
best swimmer must have hopelessly perished, in such a sit- 
uation, and in such a night, unless carried by a providen- 
tial interference to the naked rock to leeward. That no 
one was living on that reef, the glass pretty plainly 
proved. 

Mark and Bob Betts descended to the deck, after pass- 
ing a long time aloft making their observations. Both 
were pretty well assured that their situation was almost 
desperate, though each was too resolute, and too thoroughly 
imbued with the spirit of a seaman, to give up while there 
was the smallest shadow of hope. As it was now getting 
past the usual breakfast hour, some cold meat was got out, 
and, for the first time since Mark had been transferred to 
the cabin, they sat down on the windlass and ate the meal 
4 


60 


THE CRATER. 


i 

together. A little, however, satisfied men in their situa- 
tion ; Bob Betts fairly owning that he had no appetite,; 
though so notorious at the ship’s beef and a biscuit, as to 
be often the subject of his messmates’ jokes. That morn- 
ing even he could eat but little, though both felt if to be 
a duty they owed to themselves to take enough to sustain 
nature. It was while these two foi-lorn and' desolate mari- 
ners sat there on the windlass, picking, as it might be, mor- 
sel by morsel, that they first entered into a full and frank 
communication with each other, touching the realities of 
their present situation. After a good deal had passed be- 
tween them, Mark suddenly asked : — 

“ Do you think it possible. Bob, for us two to take care 
of the ship, should we even manage to get her into deep 
water again ? ” 

“ Well, that is not so soon answered, Mr. Woolston,” 
returned Bob. “ We’re both on us stout and healthy, and i 
of good courage,. Mr. Mark ; but ’twould be a desperate 
long way for two hands to carry a wessel of four hundred 
tons, to take the old ’Cocus from this here anchorage, all 
the way to the coast of America ; and short of the coast 
there’s no ra’al hope for us. Howsever, sir, that is a sub- 
ject that need give us no consarn.” 

“ I do not see that, Bob ; we shall have to do it, unless 
we fall in with something at sea, could we only bnce get 
the vessel out from among these reefs.” 

“Aye, aye, sir ; could we get her out from among these 
reefs, indeed ! There’s the rub, Mr. Woolston ; but I fear 
’twill never be ‘ rub and go.^ ” 

“ You think, then, we are too fairly in for it, ever to get 
the ship clear ? ” 

“ Such is just my notion, Mr. Woolston, on that subject, 
and I’ve no wish to keep it a secret. In my judgment, 
was poor Captain Crutchely alive, and back at his post, and 
all hands just as they was this time twenty-four hours since, 
and the ship where she is now, that here she would have 
to stay. Nothing short of hedging can ever take the wes- 
sel clear of the reefs to windward on us, and man-of-war 
hedging could hardly do it, then.” 


THE CRATER. 51 

“ I am sorry to hear you say this,” answered Mark, 
gloomily, “ though I feared as much myself.” 

“ Men is men, sir, and you can get no more out on ’em 
than is in ’em. I looked well at these reefs, sir, when 
aloft, and they’re what I call as hopeless affairs as ever I 
laid eyes on. If they lay in any sort of way, a body might 
have some little chance of getting through ’em, but they 
don’t lay no how. ’Twould be ‘luff ’ and ‘keep her away ’ 
every half minute or so, should we attempt to beat up 
among ’em ; and who is there aboard here to brace up, and 
haul aft, and ease off, and to swing yards sich as our’n ?” 

“ I was not altogether without the hope, Bob, of getting 
the ship into clear water ; though I have thought it would 
be done with difficulty. I am still of opinion we had bet- 
ter try it, for the alternative is a very serious matter.” 

“ I don’t exactly understand what you mean by attorney- 
tives, Mr. Mark ; though it’s little harm or little good that 
any attorney can do the old ’Cocus, now ! . But as for get- 
ting. this craft through them reefs to windward, and into 
clear water, it surpasses the power of man. Did you just 
notice the tide-ripples, Mr. Mark, when you was up in the 
cross-trees ? ” 

“I saw them. Bob, and am fully aware of the difficulty 
of running as large a vessel as this among them, even with 
a full crew. But what w’ill become of us, unless we get 
the ship into open water?” 

“ Sure enough, sir. I see no other hope for us, Mr. 
Mark, but to Robinson Crusoe it awhile, until our times 
come ; or, till the Lord, in his marcy, shall see fit to have 
us picked up.” 

“ Robinson Crusoe it ! ” repeated Mark, smiling at the 
quaintness of Bob’s expression, which the well-meaning 
fellow uttered in all simplicity, and in perfect good faith, 
“ where are we to find even an uninhabited island, on 
which to dwell after the mode of Robinson Crusoe ? ” 

“ There’s a bit of a reef to leeward, where I dare say a 
man might pick up a living, arter a fashion,” answered 
Bob, coolly ; “ then, here is the ship.” 

“And how long would a hempen cable hold the ship ir 


52 


^ THE CRATER. 


a place like this, where every time the vessel lifts to a sea 
the clench is chafing on a rock ? No, no, Bob ; the ship J 
cannot long remain where she is, depend on that. Wei 
must try and pass down to leeward, if we cannot beat the . 
ship through the dangers to windward.” 

“ Harkee, Mr. Mark ; I thought this matter over in my 
mind, while we was aloft, and this is my idee as to what is 
best to be done, for a start. There’s the dingui on the 
poop, in as good order as ever a boat was. She will easily 
carry two on us, and, on a pinch, she might carry half a 
dozen. Now, my notion is to get the dingui into the 
water, to put a breaker and some grub in her, and to pull 
down to that bit of a reef, and have a survey of it. I’ll 
take the sculls going down, and you can keep heaving the 
lead, by way of finding out if there be sich a thing as a 
channel in that direction. If the ship is ever to be moved 
by us two, it must be by going to leeward, and not by at- 
tempting to turn up ag’in wind and tide among them ’ere 
rocks, out here to the eastward. No, sir ; let us take the 
dingui, and surwey the reef, and look for our shipmates ; 
a ter which we can best tell what to undertake, with some 
little hope of succeeding. The weather seems settled, and 
the sooner we are bff the better.” 

This proposal struck Mark’s young mind as plausible, as 
well as discreet. To recover even a single man would be 
a great advantage, and he had lingering hopes that some ' 
of the people might yet be found on the reef. Then 
Bob’s idea about getting the ship through the shoal water, 
by passing to leeward, in preference to making the attempt 
against the wind, was a sound one ; and, on a little reflec- 
tion, he was well enough disposed to acquiesce in it. Ac- 
cordingly, when they quitted the windlass, they both set 
about putting this project in execution. 

The dingui was no great matter of a boat, and they had 
n-jt much difficulty in getting it into the water. First, 
by slinging, it was swayed high enough to clear the rail, 
^dien Bob bore it over the side, and Mark lowered away. 
It was found to be tight. Captain Crutchley having kept ^ 
It half full of water ever since they got into the Pacific 


THE CRATER. 


53 


and in other respects it was in good order. It was even 
provided with a little sail, which did very well before the 
wind. While Bob saw to provisioning the boat, and filling 
its breakers with fresh water, Mark attended to another 
piece of duty that he conceived to be of the last im- 
portance. The Rancocus carried several guns, an arma- 
ment prepared to repel the savages of the sandal-wood 
islands, and these guns were all mounted and in their 
places. There were two old-fashioned sixes, and eight 
twelve-pound carronades. The first made smart reports 
when properly loaded. Our young mate now got the keys 
of the magazine, opened it, and brought forth three 
cartridges, with which he loaded three of the guns. 
These guns he fired, with short intervals between them, in 
hopes that the reports would be carried to the ears of 
some of the missing people, and encourage them to make 
every effort to return. The roar of artillery sounded 
strangely enough in the midst of that vast solitude ; and 
Bob Betts, who had often been in action, declared that he 
was much affected by it. As no immediate result w^as 
expected from the firing of these guns, Mark had no 
sooner discharged them, than he joined Betts, who by this 
time had everything ready, and prepared to quit the ship. 
Before he did this, however, he made an anxious and care- 
ful survey of the weather, it being all-important to be cer- 
tain no change in this respect was likely to occur in his 
absence. All the omens were favorable, and Bob re- 
porting for the third time that everything was ready, the 
young man went .over the side, and descended, with a re- 
luctance he could not conceal, into the boat. Certainly, it 
was no trifling matter for men in the situation of our two 
mariners, to leave their vessel all alone, to be absent for 
a large portion of the day. It was to be done, however ; 
though it was done reluctantly, and not without many 
misgivings, in spite of the favorable signs in the atmos- 
phere. 

When Mark had taken his seat in the dingui. Bob let 
go his hold of the ship, and set the sail. The breeze was 
light, and fair to go, though it was by no means so certain 




THE CRATER. 


how it would serve him on the return. Previously to 
quitting the ship, Mark had taken a good look at the 
breakers to leeward, in order to have some general notion 
of the course best to steer, and he commenced his little 
voyage, but entirely without a plan for his own govern 
ment. The breakers were quite as numerous to leeward 
as to windward, but the fact of there being so many of 
them made smooth water between them. A boat, or a 
ship, that was once fairly a league or so within the broken 
lines of rocks, was like a vessel embayed, the rollers of 
the open ocean expending their force on the outer reefs, 
and coming in much reduced in size and power. Still the 
uneasy ocean, even in its state of reat, is formidable at 
the points where its waters meet with rocks, or sands, and 
the breakers that did exist, even as much embayed as was 
the dingui, were serious matters for so small a boat to en- 
counter. It was necessary, consequently, to steer clear of 
them, lest they should capsize or fill this, the only craft 
of the sort that now belonged to the vessel, the loss of 
which would be a most serious matter itrdeed. 

The dingui glided away from the ship with a very easy 
movement. , There was just about as much wind as so 
small a craft needed, and Bob soon began to sound, Mark 
jDreferring to steer. It was, however, by no means easy 
to sound in so low a boat, while in such swift motion ; and 
Bob was compelled to give it up. As they 'should be 
obliged to return with the oars, Mark observed that then 
he would feel his way back to the ship. Nevertheless, the 
few casts of the lead that did succeed, satisfied our mari- 
ners that there was much more than water enough for the 
Rancocus between the reefs. On them, doubtless it would 
turn out to be different. 

Mark met with more difficulty than he had anticipated 
in keeping the dingui out of the breakers. So very 
smooth was the sort of bay he was in — a bay by means 
of the reefs to windward, though no rock in that direction 
rose above the surface of the sea — so very smooth, then, 
was the sort of bay he was in, that the water did not 
break, in many places, except at long intervals ; and then 


THE CRATER. 


55 


only when a roller heavier than common found its way in 
from the outer ocean. As a consequence, the breakers 
that did suddenly show themselves from a cause like this, 
were the heaviest of all, and the little dingui would have 
fared badly had it been caught on a reef at the precise 
moment when such a sea tumbled over in foam. This ac- 
cident was very near occurring once or twice, but it was 
escaped more by providential interference than by any 
care or skill in the adventurers. 

It is very easy to imagine the intense interest with 
which our two mariners drew near to the visible reef. 
Their observations from the cross-trees of the ship had told 
them this was all the land anywhere very near them, and 
if they did not find their lost shipmates here, they ought 
not to expect to find them at all. Then, this reef, or 
island, was of vast importance in other points of view. 
It might become their future home ; perhaps for years, 
possibly for life. The appearances of the sunken reefs, over 
and among which he had just passed, had greatly shaken 
Mark’s hope of ever getting the ship from among them, 
and he even doubted the possibility of bringing her down, 
before the wind, to the place where he was then going. 
All these considerations, which began to press more and 
more painfully on his mind, each foot as he advanced, 
served to increase the intensity of the interest with which 
he noted every appearance on, or about, the reef, or island, 
that he was now approaching. Bob had less feeling on 
the subject. He had less imagination, and foresaw conse- 
quences and effects less vividly than his officer, and was 
more accustomed to the vicissitudes of a seaman’s life. 
Then he had left no virgin bride at home, to look for his 
return, and had moreover made up his mind that it was 
the will of Providence that he and Mark were to “ Robin- 
son Crusoe it ” awhile on ‘‘ that bit of reef.” Whether 
they should ever be rescued from so' desolate a place was 
a point on which he had not yet begun to ponder. 

The appearances were anything but encouraging, as the 
dingui drew nearer and nearer to the naked part of the 
reef. The opinions formed of this place, by the examine 


56 THE CRATER. 

tion made from the cross-trees, turned out to be tolerably 
accurate, iu several particulars. It was just about a mile 
in length, while its breath varied from half a mile to less 
than an eighth of a mile. On its shores, the rock along 
most of the reef rose but a very few feet above the sur- 
face of the water, though at its eastern, or the weather 
extremity, it might have been of more than twice the 
usual height ; its length lay nearly east and west. In the 
centre of this island, however, there was a singular forma- 
tion of the rock, which appeared to rise to an elevation of 
something like sixty or eighty feet, making a sort of a 
regular circular mound of that height, which occupied no 
small part of the widest portion of the island. Nothing 
like tree, shrub, or grass, was visible, as the boat drew 
near enough to render such things apparent. Of aquatic 
birds there were a good many ; though even they did not 
appear in the numbers that are sometimes seen in the 
vicinity of uninhabited islands. About certain large naked 
rocks, at no great distance however from the principal reef, 
they were hovering in thousands. 

At length the little dingui glided in quite near to the 
island. Mark was at first surprised to find so little surf 
beating against even its weather side, but this was ac- 
counted for by the great number of the reefs that lay for 
miles without it ; and, particularly, by the fact that one 
line of rock stretched directly across this weather end, dis- 
tant from it only two cables’ lengths, forming a pretty lit- 
tle sheet of perfectly smooth water between it and the 
island. Of course, to do this, the line of reef just men- 
tioned must come very near the surface ; as in fact was 
the case, the rock rising so high as to be two or three feet 
out of water on the ebb, though usually submerged on the 
fiood. The boat was obliged to pass round one end of 
this last-named reef, where there was deep water, and then 
to haul its wind a little in order to reach the shore. 

It would be difficult to describe the sensations with 
which Mark first landed. In approaching the place, both 
he and Bob had strained their eyes in the hope of seeing 
some proof that their shipmates had been there; but nc 


THE CRATER. 


57 


discovery rewarded their search. Nothing was seen, on or 
about the island, to furnish the smallest evidence that either 
of the boats had touched it. Mark found that he was 
treading on naked rock when he had landed, though the 
surface was tolerably smooth. The rock itself was of a 
sort to which he was unaccustomed ; and he began to sus- 
pect, what in truth turned out on further investigation to 
be the fact, that instead of being on a reef of coral he' was 
on one of purely volcanic origin. The utter nakedness of 
the rock both surprised and grieved him. On the reefs, in 
every direction, considerable quantities of sea-weed had 
lodged, temporarily at least ; but none of it appeared to 
have found its way to this particular place. Nakedness 
and dreariness were the two words which best described 
the island ; the only interruption to its solitude and deso- 
lation being occasioned by the birds, which now came 
screaming and flying above the heads of the intruders, 
showing both by their boldness and their cries, that they 
were totally unacquainted with men. 

The mound in the centre of the reef was an object too 
conspicuous to escape atttention, and our adventurers ap- 
proached it at once, with the expectation of getting a better 
look-out from its summit than that they had on the lower 
level of the surface of the ordinary reef. Thither then 
they proceeded, accompanied by a large flight of the birds. 
Neither Mark nor Bob, however, had neglected to turn 
his eyes towards the now distant ship, which was appar- 
ently riding at its anchor, in exactly the condition in 
which it had been left, half an hour before. In that quar- 
ter all seemed right, and Mark led the way to the mount, 
with active and eager steps. 

On reaching the foot of this singular elevation, our ad- 
venturers found it would not be so easy a matter as they 
had fancied, to ascend it. Unlike the rest of the reef 
which they had yet seen, it appeared to be composed of a 
crumbling rock, and this so smooth and perpendicular as to 
render it extremely difficult to get up. A place was found 
at length, however, and by lending each other a hand, Mark 
and Bob finally got on the summit. Here a surprise was 


58 


THE CRATER. 


ready for tliem that drew an exclamation from eacli the 
instant the sight broke upon him. Instead of finding an 
elevated bit of table-rock, as had been expected, a circular 
cavity existed within, that Mark at once recognized to be 
the extinct crater of a volcano ! After the first astonish- 
ment was over, Mark made a close examination of the 
place. 

The mound or barrier of lava and scorim that composed 
the outer wall of this crater was almost mathematically 
circular. Its inner precipice was in most places absolutely 
perpendicular, though overhanging in a few ; there being but 
two or three spots where an active man could descend in 
safety. The area within might contain a hundred acres, 
while the wall preserved a very even height of about sixty 
feet, falling a little below this at the leeward side, where 
there existed one narrow hole, or passage, on a level with 
the bottom of the crater ; a sort of gateway by which to 
enter and quit the cavity. This passage had no doubt been 
formed by the exit of lava, which centuries ago had doubt- 
less broken through at this point, and contributed to form 
the visible reef beyond. The height of this hole was some 
twenty feet, having an arch above it, and its width may 
have been thirty. When Mark got to it, which he did by 
descending the wall of the crater, not without risk to his 
neck, he found the surface of the crater very even and un- 
broken with the exception of its having a sligbit descent 
from its eastern to its western side ; or from the side op- 
posite to the outlet, or gateway, to the gateway itself. This 
inclination Mark fancied was owing to the circumstance 
that the water of the ocean had formerly entered at the 
bole, in uncommonly high tides and tempests, and washed 
the ashes which had once formed the bottom of the crater 
"owards the remote parts of the plain. These ashes had 
been converted by time into a soft or friable rock, com- 
posing a stone that is called tufa. If there had ever been 
a cone in the crater, as was probably the case, it had to- 
tally disappeared under the action of time and the wear of 
the seasons. Rock, however, the bed of the crater could 
scarcely be yet considered, though it had a crust which 


THE cratp:k. 


59 


bore the weight of a man very readily, in nearly every part 
' of it. Once or twice Mark broke through, as one would 
; fall through rotten ice, when he found his shoes covered 
I with a light dust that much resembled ashes. In other 
' places he broke this crust on purpose, always finding be- 
. neath it a considerable depth of ashes, mingled with some 
shells, and a few small stones. 

That the water sometimes flowed into this crater was 
evident by a considerable deposit of salt, which marked 
1 the limits of the latest of these floods. This salt had prob- 
; ably prevented vegetation. The water, however, never 
^ could have entered from the sea, had not the lava which 
originally made the outlet left a sort of channel that was 
lower than the surface of the outer rocks. It might be 
nearer to the real character of the phenomenon were we 
to say, that the lava which had broken through the barrier 
t at his point, and tumbled into the sea, had not quite filled 
I the channel which it rather found than formed, when it 
^ ceased to flow. Cooling in that form, an irregular crevice 
r was left, through which the element no doubt still occa- 
' sionally entered, when the adjacent ocean got a sufficient 
elevation. Mark observed that, from some cause or other, 
the birds avoided the crater. It really seemed to him that 
their instincts warned them of the dangers that had once 
environed the place, and that, to use the language of sail- 
' ors, “ they gave it a wide berth,” in consequence. What- 
^ ever may have been the cause, such was the fact ; few even 
[ flying over it, though they were to be seen in hundreds in 
i the air all round it 


1 






60 


THE CRATER. 


'• ” v..--.- 

CHAPTER V. 

The king’s son have I landed by himself ; 

Whom I left cooling of' the air with sighs ^ = 

In an odd angle of the isle, and sitting, - 
His arms in this sad knot. 

Tempest. 

Having completed this first examination of the crater, 
Mark and Bob next picked their way again to the summit 
of its wall, and took their seats directly over the arch. 
Here they enjoyed as good a look-out as the little island 
afforded, not only of its own surface, but of the surround- 
ing ocean. Mark now began to comprehend the character 
of the singular geological formation into the midst of which 
the Rancocus had been led, as it might almost be by the 
hand of Providence itself. He was at that moment seated 
on the topmost pinnacle of a submarine mountain of vol- 
canic origin — submarine as to all its elevations, heights, 
and spaces with the exception of the crater where he had 
just taken his stand, and the little bit of visible and vener- 
able lava by which it was surrounded. It is true that this 
lava rose very near the surface of the ocean in fifty places 
that he could see at no great distance, forming the num- 
berless breakers that characterized the place ; but, with 
the exception of Mark’s Reef, as Bob named the principal 
island on the spot, two or three detached islets within a 
cable’s length of it, and a few little more remote, the par- 
ticular haunts of birds, no other land was visible, far or near. 

As Mark sat there, on that rock of concrete ashes, he 
speculated on the probable extent of the shoals and reefs 
by which he was surrounded. Judging by what he then 
saw, and recalling the particulars of the examination made 
from the cross-trees of the ship, he supposed that the dan- 
gers and difficulties of the navigation must extend in an 


THE CRATER. 


01 


east and west direction, at least twelve marine leagues : 
wdiile in a north and south, the distance seemed to be a 
little, and a very little, less. There was necessarily a good 
deal of conjecture in this estimate of the extent of the vol- 
canic mountain which composed these extensive shoals ; 
but from what he saw, from the distance the ship was known 
to have run amid the dangers before she brought up, her 
present anchorage, the position of the island, and all the 
other materials before him to make his calculation on, Mark 
believed himself rather to have lessened than to have ex- 
aggerated the extent of these shoals. Had the throes of 
the earth which produced this submerged rock been a 
little more powerful, a beautiful and fertile island, of very 
respectable dimensions, would probably have been formed 
in its place. 

From the time of reaching the reef, which is now to 
bear his name in all future time, our young seaman had 
begun to admit the bitter possibility of being compelled to 
pass the remainder of his days on it. How long he and his 
companion could find the means of subsistence in a place so 
barren was merely matter of conjecture ; but so long as 
Providence should furnish these means, it was highly prob- 
able that solitary and little-favored spot was to be their 
home. It is unnecessary to state with what bitter regrets 
the young bridegroom admitted this painful idea ; but 
Mark was too manly and resolute to abandon himself to 
despair, even at such a moment. He kept his sorrows pent 
up in the repository of his own bosom, and endeavored to 
imitate the calm exterior of his companion. As for Bob, 
he was a good deal of a philosopher by nature, and, having 
made up his mind that they were doomed to “ Robinson 
Crusoe it,” for a few years at least, he was already turn- 
ing over in his thoughts the means of doing so to the best 
advantage. Under such circumstances and with such feel- 
ings, it is not at all surprising that their present situation 
and their future prospects soon became the subject of dis- 
course between these two solitary seamen. 

« We are fairly in for it, Mr. Mark,” said Bob, “ and 
differ from Robinson only in the fact that there are two of 


62 


THE CRATER. 




us ; whereas he was obliged to set up for liimself, and by 
himself, until he fell in with Friday ! ” 

“1 wish I could say that was the only difference in our 
conditions, Betts, but it is very far from being so. In the 
first place he had an island, while we have little more than 
a reef ; he had soil, while we have naked rock ; he had 
fresh water, and we have none ; he had trees, while we 
have not even a spear of grass. All these circumstances 
make out a case most desperately against us.” 

“ You speak truth, sir ; yet is there light ahead. We 
have a ship, sound and tight as the day she sailed ; while 
Robinson lost his craft under his feet. As long as there 
is a plank afloat, a true salt never gives up.” 

“ Aye, Bob, I feel that as strongly as you can yourself ; 
nor do I mean to give up, so long as there is reason to 
think God has not entirely deserted us. But that ship is 
of no use, in the way of returning to our friends and home ; 
or, of no use as a ship. The power of man could scarcely 
extricate her from the reefs around her.” 

“It’s a bloody bad berth,” said Bob, squirting the saliva 
of his tobacco half-way down the wall of the crater, “ that 
I must allow. Howsomever, the ship will be of use in a 
great many ways, Mr. Mark, if we can keep her afloat 
even where she is. The water that’s in her will last us 
two a twelvemonth, if we are a little particular about it ; 
and when the rainy season sets in, as the rainy 'season will 
be sure to do in this latitude, we can fill up for a fresh start. 
Then the ship will be a house for us to live in, and a capi- 
tal good house, too. * You can live aft, sir, and I’ll take my 
swiug in the forecastle, just as if nothing had happened.” 

“No, no. Bob; there is an end of all such distinctions 
now. Misery, like the grave, brings all upon a level. You 
and I commenced as messmates, and we are likely to end 
as messmates. There is a use to which the ship may be 
put, however, that you have not mentioned, and to which 
we must look forward as our best hope for this world. She 
may be broken up by us, and we may succeed in building 
a craft large enough to navigate these mild seas, and yet 
small enough to be taken through, or over the reefs. lu 


THE CRATER. 63 

that way, favored by Divine Providence, we may live to 
see our friends again.” 

“ Courage, Mr. Mark, courage, sir. I know it must be 
hard on the feelin’s of a married man, like yourself, that 
has left a parfect pictur’ behind him, to believe he is never 
to return to his home again. But I don’t believe that such 
is to be our fate. I never heard of such an end to a 
Crusoe party. Even Robinson, himself, got off at last, 
and had a desperate hard journey of it after he hauled his 
land-tacks aboard. I like that idee of the new craft ’spe- 
cially well,' and will lend a hand to help you through with 
it with all my heart. I’m not much of a carpenter, it’s 
true, nor do I suppose you are anything wonderful with 
the broad-axe and adze ; but two willing and stout men, 
who has got their lives to save, can turn their hands to al- 
most anything. For my part, sir, since I was to be wrecked 
and to Robinson it awhile, I’m gratefully thankful that 
I’ve got you for a companion, that’s all ! ” 

'Mark smiled at this oblique compliment, but he felt well 
assured that Bob meant all for the' best. After a short 
pause, he resumed the discourse by saying, — 

“ I have been thinking. Bob, of the possibility of getting 
the ship safely down as far as this island. Could we but 
place her to leeward of that last reef off the weather end 
of the island, she might lie there years, or until she fell to 
pieces by decay. If we are to attempt building a decked 
boat, or anything large enough to ride out a gale in, we 
shall want more room than the ship’s decks to set it up in. 
Besides, we could never get a craft of those dimensions 
off the ship’s decks, and must, of necessity, build it in 
some place where it may be launched. Our dingui would 
never do to be moving backward and forward, so great a 
distance, for it will carry little more than ourselves. All 
things considered, therefore, I am of opinion we can do 
nothing better, to begin with, than to try to get the ship 
down here, where we have room, and may carry out our 
plans to some advantage.” 

Bob assented at once to this scheme, and suggested one 
or two ideas in a23probatiou of it that were new even to 


64 


THE CRATER. 


Mark. Tims, it was evident to botli that if tlie ship her- 
self were ever to get clear of the reef, it must be by passing 
out tc leeward ; and by bringing her down to the island so 
much would be gained on the indispensable course. Thus, 
added Bob, she might be securely moored in the little bay 
to windward of the island ; and in the course of time it 
was possible that by a thorough examination of the chan- 
nels to the westward, and by the use of buoys, a passage 
might be found, after all, that would carry them out to sea. 
Mark had little hope of ever getting the Rancocus extri- 
cated from the maze of rocks into which she had so blindly 
entered, and where she probably never could have come 
but by driving over some of them ; but he saw many ad- 
vantages in this plan of removing the ship that increased 
in number and magnitude the more he thought on the 
subject. Security to the fresh water was one great object 
to be attained. Should it come on to blow, and the ship 
drift down upon the rocks to leeward of her, she would 
probably go to pieces in an hour or two, when not only 
all the other ample stores that she contained, but every 
drop of sweet water at the command of the two seamen, 
would inevitably be lost. So important did it appear to 
Mark to make sure of a portion of this great essential, at 
least, that he would have proposed towing down to the 
reef, or island, a few casks, had the dingui been heavy 
enough to render such a project practicable. After talking 
over these several points still more at large, Mark and Bob 
descended from the summit of the crater, made half of its 
circuit, and returned to their boat. 

As the day continued calm, Mark was in no hurry, but 
passed half an hour in sounding the little bay that was 
formed by the sunken rocks that lay off the eastern or 
weather end of the Crater Reef, as, in a spirit of humility, 
he insisted on calling that which everybody else now calls 
Mark’s Reef. Here he not only found abundance of water 
for all he wanted, but to his surprise he also found a sandy 
bottom, formed no doubt by the particles washed from the 
surrounding rocks under the never-ceasing abrasion of the 
waves. On the submerged reef there were only a few 


THE CRATER. 


65 


indies of water, and onr mariners saw dearly that it was 
possible to secure the ship in this basin, in a very effectual 
manner, could they only have a sufficiency of good weather 
in which to do it. 

After surveying the basin, itself, with sufficient care. 
Bob pulled the dingui back towards the ship, Mark sound- 
ing as they proceeded. But two difficulties were found 
between the points that it was desirable to bring in com- 
munication with each other. One of these difficulties con- 
sisted in a passage between two lines of reef that ran 
nearly parallel for a quarter of a mile, and which were 
only half a cable’s length asunder. There was abundance 
of water between these reefs, but the difficulty was in the 
course and in the narrowness of the passage. Mark passed 
through the latter four several times, sounding it, as it 
might be, foot by foot, and examining the bottom with the 
eye ; for, in that pellucid water, with the sun near the 
zenith, it was possible to see two or three fathoms down, 
and nowhere did he find any other obstacle than this just 
mentioned. Nor was any buoy necessary, the water break- 
ing over the southern end of the outer, and over the north- 
ern end of the inner ledge, and nowhere else near by, thus 
distinctly noting the very two points where it would be 
necessary to alter th» course. 

The second obstacle was much more serious than that 
just described. It was a reef with a good deal of water 
• over most of it ; so much, indeed, that the sea did not break 
unless in heavy gales ; but not enough to carry a ship like 
the Rancocus over, except in one, and that a very contracted 
p!iss, of less than a hundred feet in width. This channel 
it would be indispensably necessary to buoy, since a varia- 
tion from the true course of only a few fathoms would in- 
fallibly produce the loss of the ship. All the rest of the 
distance was easily enough made by a vessel standing down, 
py simply taking care not to run into visible breakers. 

Mark and Bob did not get back to the Rancocus until 
near three o’clock. They found everything as they had left 
it, and the pigs, poultry, and goat glad enough to see them, 
and beginning to want their victuals and drink. The two 
5 


66 


THE CRATER. 


first are to be found on board of every ship, but the last is 
not quite so usual. Captain Crutchely had brought one 
along to supply milk for his tea, a beverage that, oddly 
enough, stood second only to grog in his favor. After 
Bob had attended to the wants of the brute animals, he 
and Mark again sat down on the windlass to make an- 
other cold repast on broken meat — as yet, they had not 
the hearts to cook anything. As soon as this homely meal 
was taken Mark placed a couple of buoys in the dingui, 
with the pig-iron that was necessary to anchor them, and 
proceeded to the spot on the reef where it was proposed 
to place them. 

Our mariners were quite an hour in searching for the 
channel and near another in anchoring the buoys in a way 
to render the passage perfectly safe. As soon as this was 
done. Bob pulled back to the ship, which was less than a 
mile distant, as fast as he could, for there was every ap- 
pearance of a change of weather. The moment was one, 
now, that demanded great coolness and decision. Not 
more than an hour of day remained, and the question was 
whether to attempt to move the ship that night, when the 
channel and its marks were all fresh in the minds of the 
two seamen and before the foul weather came, or to trust 
to the cable that was down to ride out any blow that might 
happen. Mark, young as he was, thought justly on most 
professional subjects. He knew that heavy rollers would 
come in across the reef where the vessel then lay, and was 
fearful that the cable would chafe and part, should it come 
on to blow hard for four-and-twenty hours continually. 
These rollers, he also knew by the observation of that day, 
were completely broken and dispersed on the rocks before 
they got down to the island, and he believed the chances 
of safety much greater by moving the ship at once than 
by trying the fortune of another night out where she then 
lay. Bob submitted to this decision precisely as if Mark 
was still his officer, and no sooner got his orders than he 
sprang from sail to sail, and rope to rope, like a cat playing 
among the branches of some tree. In that day, spensers 
were unknown, staysails doing their duty. Thus Bob 


THE CRATER. 


67 


loosed the jib, main-topmast and mizzen-staysails, and saw 
the 'spanker clear for setting. While he was thus busied, 
Mark was looking to the stopper and shank-painter of the 
sheet-anchor, which had been got ready to let go, before 
Captain Crutchely was lost. He even succeeded in get- 
ting that heavy piece of metal a-cockbill, without calling 
on Bob for assistance. 

It was indeed time for them to be in a hurry ; for the 
wind began to come in puffs, the sun was sinking into a 
bank of clouds, and all along the horizon to windward the 
sky looked dark and menacing. Once Mark changed his 
mind, determining to hold on, and let go the sheet-anchor 
where he was, should it become necessary ; but a lull 
tempted him to proceed. Bob shouted out that all was 
ready, and Mark lifted the axe with which he was armed, 
and struck a heavy blow on the cable. That settled the 
matter ; an entire strand was separated, and three or four 
more blows released the ship from her anchor. Mark now 
sprang to the jib-halyards, assisting Bob to hoist the sail. 
This was no sooner done than he went aft to the wheel, 
where he arrived in time to help the ship to fall off. The 
spanker was next got out as well as two men could do it in 
a hurry, and then Bob went forward to tend the jibsheet, 
and to look out for the buoys. 

It was indispensable in such a navigation to make no 
mistake, and Mark enjoined the utmost vigilance on his 
friend. Twenty times did he hail to inquire if the buoys 
were to be seen, and at last he was gratified by an answer 
in the affirmative. 

“ Keep her away, Mr. Mark — keep her away you may, 
sir ; we are well to windward of the channel. . Aye, that’ll 
do, Mr. Woolston — that’s your beauty, sir. Can’t you get 
a sight of them b’ys yourself, sir ? ” 

“ Not just yet, Bob, and so much the greater need that 
you should look out the sharper. Give the ship plenty of 
room, and I’ll let her run down for the passage, square for 
the channel.” 

Bob now ran aft, telling the mate he had better go on 
the forecastle himself and conn the ship through the pas- 


68 


THE CRATER. 


sage, whicli was a place he did not like. Mark was vexed 
that the change should be made just at that critical instant, 
but bounding forward, he was between the knight-heads in 
half a minute, looking out for the buoys. At first, he could 
not see them ; and then he most felt the imprudence of 
Bob’s quitting his post in such a critical instant. In an- 
other minute, however, he found one ; and presently the 
other came in sight, fearfully close, as it now appeared to 
our young jnariner, to its neighbor. The position of the 
ship, nevertheless, was sufficiently to windward, leaving 
plenty of room to keep off in. As soon as the ship was far 
enough ahead, Mark called out to Bob to put his helm hard 
up. This was done, and away the Rancocus went, Mark . 
watching her with the utmost vigilance, lest she should 
sheer a little too much to the one side or to the other. 
He hardly breathed as the vessel glided down upon these 
two black sentinels, and, for an instant, he fancied the 
wind or the current had interfered with their positions. It 
was now too late, however, to attempt any change, and 
Mark saw the ship surging onward on the swells of the 
ocean, which made their way thus far within the reefs, 
with a greater intensity of anxiety than he had ever before 
experienced in his life. Away went the ship, and each 
time she settled in the water our young man expected to 
hear her keel grating on the bottom, but it did not touch. 
Presently the buoys were on her quarters, and then Mark 
knew that the danger of this one spot was passed ! 

The next step was to find the southern end of the outer 
Isdge that formed the succeeding passage. This was not 
done until the ship was close aboard of it. A change had 
come over the spot within the last few hours, in conse- 
quence of the increase of wind, the water breaking all along 
the ledge, instead of on its end only ; but Mark cared not 
for this, once certain he had found that end. He was now 
half-way between his former anchorage and the crater, and 
he could distinguish the latter quite plainly. But sail was 
necessary to carry the ship safely through the channel ahead, 
and Mark called to Bob to lash the helm amidships after 
luffing up to his course, and to spring to the main-topmast 


THE CRATER. 


69 


staysail halyards, and help him hoist the sail. This was 
soon’ done, and the new sail was got up, and the sheet 
hauled aft. Next followed the mizzen staysail, which was 
spread in the same manner. Bob then flew to the wheel, 
and Mark to his knight-heads again. Contrary to Mark’s 
apprehensions, he saw that the ship was luffing up close to 
the weather ledge, leaving little danger of her going on to 
it. As soon as met by the helm, however, she fell off, and 
Mark no longer had any doubt of weathering the northern 
end of the inner ledge of this passage. The wind coining 
in fresher puffs, this was soon done, when the ship was 
kept dead away for the crater. There was the northern 
end of the reef, which formed the inner basin of all, to 
double, when that which remained to do was merely to 
range far enough within the reef to get a cover, and to drop 
the anchor. In order to do this with success, Mark now 
commenced hauling down the jib. By the time he had 
that sail well in, the ship was off the end of the sunken reef, 
when Bob put his helm a-starboard and rounded it. Down 
came the main-topmast, staysail, and Mark jumped on the 
forecastle, while he called out to Bob to lash the helm 
a-lee. In an instant Bob was at the young man’s side, 
and both waited for the ship to luff* into the wind, and to 
forge as near as possible to the reef. This was success- 
fully done also, and Mark let go the stopper within twenty 
feet of the wall of the sunken reef, just as the ship began 
to drive astern. The canvas was rolled up and secured, 
the cable payed out, until the ship lay just mid-channel be- 
tween the island and the sea-wall without, and the whole 
secured. Then Bob took off his tarpaulin and gave three 
cheers, while Mark walked aft, silently returning thanks to 
God for the complete success of this important movement. 

Important most truly was this change. Not only was 
the ship anchored, with her heaviest anchor down, and her 
best cable out, in good holding ground, and in a basin 
where very little swell ever penetrated, and that entering 
laterally and diminished in force ; but there she was within 
a hundred and fifty feet of the island, at all times accessible 
by means of the dingui, a boat that it would not do to trusf 


70 


THE CRATER. 


in the water at all outside when it blew in tlie least fresh. 
In short, it was scarcely possible to have a vessel in a safer 
berth, so long as her spars and Imll were exposed to the 
gales of the ocean, or one that was more convenient to 
those who used the island. By getting down her spars 
and other hamper, the power of the winds would be much 
lessened, though Mark felt little apprehension of the winds 
at that season of the year, so long as the sea could not 
make a long rake against the vessel. He believed the ship 
safe for the present, and felt the hope of still finding a 
passage through the reef to leeward reviving in his -breast. , 
Well might Mark and Bob rejoice in the great feat they 
had just performed. That night it blew so heavily as to 
leave little doubt that the ship never could have been kept 
at her anchor, outside ; and had she struck adrift in the 
darkness nothing could have saved them from almost im- 
mediate destruction. The rollers came down in tremen- 
dous billows, breaking and roaring on all sides of the island, 
rendering the sea white with their foam, even at midnight ; 
but, on reaching the massive, natural wall that protected i 
the Rancocus, they dashed themselves into spray against 
it, wetting the vessel from her truck down, but doing her 
no injury. Mark remained on deck until past twelve 
o’clock, when finding that the gale was already breaking, 
he turned in and slept soundly until morning. As for Bob, 
he had taken his watch below early in the evening, and 
there he remained undisturbed until the appearance of day, 
when he turned out of his own accord. I 

Mark took another look at the sea, reefs, and islands, 
from the main-topmast cross-trees of the ship, as she lay 
in her new berth. Of course the range of his vision was 
somewhat altered by this change of position, and especially 
did he see a greater distance to the westward, or towards 
the lee side of the reefs. Nothing encouraging was made 
out, however ; the young man rather inclining more to the 
opinion than he had ever done before, that the vessel could 
not be extricated from the rocks which surrounded her. 
With this conviction strongly renewed, he descended to the 
deck to share in the breakfast Bob had set about preparing 


THE CRATER. 


71 


S the moment he quitted his ca t- tail s ; for Bob insisted on 
sleeping in the forecastle, though Mark had pressed him to 
take one of the cabin state-rooms. This time the meal, 
which included some very respectable ship’s coffee, was 
taken on the cabin table, the day being cloudless, and the 
sun’s rays possessing a power that made it unpleasant to 
sit long anywhere out of a ' shade. While the meal was 
taken another conversation was held touching their sit- 

O 

nation. 

“ By the manner in which it blew last night,” Mark ob- 
served, “I doubt if we should have had this comfortable 
cabin to eat in this morning, and these good articles to con- 
sume, had we left the ship outside until morning.” 

“ I look upon it as a good job well done, Mr. Mark,” 
answered Bob. “I must own I had no great hopes of our 
ever getting here, but was willing to try it ; foi them rollers 
iididn’t mind half a dozen reefs, but came tumbling in over 
■Jthem, in a way to threaten the old ’Cocus with being 
■ground into powder. For my part, sir, I thank God, from 
the bottom of my heart, that we are here.” 

“You have reason to do so, Bob; and while we may 
both regret the misfortune that has befallen us, we had 
need remember how much better off we are than our ship- 
mates, poor fellows ! — or how much better we are off than 
many a poor mariner who loses his vessel altogether.” 

“ Yes, the saving of the ship is a great thing for us. 
We can hardly call this a shipwreck, Mr. Mark, though 
we have been ashore once ; it is more like being docked, 
than anything else ! ” 

^ “I have heard, before, of vessels being carried over 
reefs, and bars of rivers, into berths they could net quit,” 
answered Mark. “ But, reflect a moment. Bob, how much 
better our condition is, than if we had been washed down 
on this naked reef, with only such articles to comfort us 
as could be picked up along shore from the wreck ! ” 

“ I’m glad to hear you talk in this rational way, Mr. 
Mark ; for it’s a sign you do not give up, or take things 
too deeply to heart. I was afeard that you might be think- 
ing too much of Miss Bridget, and make yourself more un- 


72 


THE CRATER. 


happy than is necessary for a man who has things so com* 
fortable around him.” , 

“The separation from my wife causes me much pain,j 
J>etts, but 1 trust in God. It has been in his pleasure to 
place us in this extraordinary situation, and I hope that . 
' something good will come of it.” 

“ That’s the right sentiments, sir ; only keep such feel- 
ings uppermost, and we shall ,do right down well. Wliy, i 
we have water, in plenty, until after the rainy season shall 
be along, when we can catch a fresh supply. Then, there 
is beef and pork enough betwixt decks to last you and me 
five or six years ; and bread and flour in good quantities, ■ 
to say nothing of lots of small stores, both forward and aft.” ' 

“ The ship is well found, and, as you sajq we might live , 
a long time, years certainly, on the food she contains. | 
There is, however, one thing to be dreaded, and to provide 
against which shall be my first care. We are now fifty 
days on salted provisions, and fifty more will give us both 
the scurvy.” 

“ The Lord in his mercy protect me from that disease ! ” 
exclaimed Bob. “ I had it once, in an old v’y’ge round 
the Horn, and have no wish to try it ag’in. But there ■ 
must be fish in plenty among these rocks, Mr. Mark, and 
we have a good stock of bread. By dropping the beef and 
pork for a few days at a time, might we not get shut of 
the danger?” 

“ Fish will help us, and turtle would be a great resource, ^ 
could we meet with any of that. But man requires mixed I 
food, meats and vegetables, to keep him healthy ; and j 
nothing is so good for the scurvy as the last. The worst ' 
of our situation is a want of soil, to grow any vegetables 1 
in. I did not see so much as a rush, or the coarsest sea- 
plant, when we were on the island yesterday. If we had 
soil, there is seed in plenty on board, and this climate would i 
bring forward vegetation at a rapid rate.” 

“ Aye, aye, sir, and I’ll tell you what I’ve got in the 
way of seeds, myself. You may remember the delicious ' 
musk and water-melons we fell in with last v’y’ge, in the 
east. Well, sir, I saved some of the seed, thinking to give 


THE CRATER. 


73 


it to my brother, who is a Jarsey farmer, you know, sir ; 
and, sailor-like, I forgot it altogether, when in port. If a 
fellow could get but a bit of earth to put them melon seeds 
in, we might be eating our fruit like gentlemen, two mouths 
hence, or three months, at the latest.” 

“ That is a good thought, Betts, and we will turn it over 
in our minds. If such a thing is to be done at all, the 
sooner it is done the better, that the mblons may be getting 
ahead while we are busy with the other matters. This is 
just the season to put seed into the ground, and I think we 
might make soil enough to sustain a few hills of melons. If 
I remember right, too there are some of the sweet potatoes 
left.” 

Bob assented, and during the rest of the meal they did 
nothing but pursue this plan of endeavoring to obtain half 
a dozen or a dozen hills of melons. As Mark felt all the 
importance of doing everything that lay in his power to 
ward off the scurvy, and knew that time was not to be 

t lost, he determined that the very first thing he would now 
attend to, would be to get all the seed into as much ground 
as he could contrive to make. Accordingly, as soon as the 
breakfast was ended, Mark went to collect his seeds, while 
Bob set the breakfast things aside, after properly cleaning 
them. 

i There were four shoats on board, which had been kept 
in the launch until that boat was put into the water the 
night the Rancocus ran upon the rocks. Since that time 
they had been left to run about the decks, producing a 
good deal of dirt, and some confusion. These shoats Bob 
now caught and dropped into the bay, knowing that their 
instinct would induce them to swim for the nearest land. 
All this turned out as was expected, and the pigs were soon 
seen on the island, snuffing around on the rocks, and try- 
ing to root. A small quantity of the excrement of these 
animals still lay on the deck, where it had been placed 
when the launch was cleaned for service, no one thinking ai 
such a moment of cleaning the decks. It had been washed 
by the sea that came aboard quite across the deck, but still 
formed a pile, and most of it was preserved. This manure 


74 


THE CRATER. 


Mark was about to put in a half-barrel, in order to carry it 
ashore, for the purpose of converting it into soil, when Bob 
suddenly put an end to what he was about, by telling him 
that he knew where a manure worth two of that was to be 
found. An explanation was asked and given. Bob, who 
had been several voyages on the western coast of America, 
told Mark that the Peruvians and Chilians made great use 
of the dung of aquatic birds as a manure, and which they 
found oil the rocks that lined their coast. Now two or 
three rocks lay near their reef that were covered with tliis 
deposit, the birds still hovering about them, and he pro- 
posed to take the dingui and go in quest of a little of that 
fertilizing manure. A very little, he said, would suffice, 
the Spaniards using it in small quantities, but applying it 
at different stages in the growth of the plant. It is scarcely 
necessary to say that Bob had fallen on a knowledge of the 
use of the article which is now so extensively known under 
the name of guano, in the course of his wanderings, and was 
enabled to communicate the fact to his companion. Mark 
knew that Betts was a man of severe truth, and he was so 
much the more disposed to listen to his suggestion. While 
our young mate was getting the boat ready, therefore, Bob 
collected his tools, provided himself with a bucket, passed the 
half-barrel, into which Mark had thrown the sweepings of 
the decks, into the dingui, and descended himself and took 
the sculls. The two then proceeded to Bob’s rock, where, 
amid the screams of a thousand sea-birds, the honest fellow 
, filled his bucket with as good guano as was ever found on 
the coast of Peru. 

While the boat was at the rock, Mark saw that the pigs 
had run round to the western end of the island, snuffing at 
everything that came in their way, and trying in vain to 
root wherever one of them could insert his nose. As a hog 
is a particularly sagacious animal, Mark kept his eyes on 
them while Bob was picking out his guano, in the faint 
hope that they might discover fresh water by means of 
their instinct. In this way he saw them enter the gateway 
of the crater, pigs being pretty certain to run their noses 
into any such place as that. 


i 

t 


1 

1 

1 


THE CEATER. 


' 75 

On landing, Mark took a part of the tools and the backet 
guano, while Bob shouldered the remainder, and they 
went up to the hole, and entered the crater together, hav- 
ing landed as near to the gateway as they could get, wUh 
that object. To Mark’s great delight he found that the 
pigs were now actually rooting with some success, so far as 
stirring the surface was concerned, though getting abso- 
lutely nothing for their pains. There were spots on the 
plain of the crater, however, where it was possible, by 
breaking a sort of crust, to get down into coarse ashes that 
were not entirely without some of the essentials of soil. 
Kxposure to the air and water, with mixing up with sea- 
weed and such othey waste materials as he could collect, 
the young man fancied would enable him to obtain a suffi- 
ciency of earthy substances to sustain the growth of plants. 
While on the summit of the crater- wall, he had seen two 
or three places where it had struck him sweet potatoes and 
beans might be made to grow, and he determined to ascend 
to those spots, and make his essay there, as being the most 
removed from the inroads of the pigs. Could he only suc- 
ceed in obtaining two or three hundred melons, he felt . 
that a great deal would be done in providing the means of 
checking any disposition to scurvy that might appear in 
Bob or himself. In this thoughtful manner did one so 
young look ahead, and make provision for the future. 


76 ‘ 


THE CRATER. 


CHAPTER VI. 

That done, partake V 

The season, prime for sweetest scents and airs, 

Then commune how that day they best may ply .| 

Their growing work ; for much their work outgrew . 

The hands dispatch of two gard’ning so wide. ^ 

Miltcn. 

Our two mariners had come ashoue well provided with^ 
the means of carrying out. their plans. The Rancocus wasi 
far better provided with tools suited to the uses of thej 
land than was common for ships, her voyage contemplatingi 
a long stay among the islands she was to visit. Thus, axes; 
and picks were not wanting. Captain Crutchely having had. 
an eye to the possible necessity of fortifying himself against^ 
savages. Mark now ascended the crater-wall with a pick; 
.on his shoulder, and a part of a coil of ratlin-stuff around 
his neck. As he went up, he used the pick to make steps,' 
and did so much in that way, in the course of ten minutes,! 
as greatly to facilitate the ascent and descent at the par- 
ticular place he had selected. Once on the summit, he 
found a part of the rock that overhung its base, and drop- 
ped one end of his line into the crater. To this Bob at- 
tached the bucket, which Mark hauled up and emptied. ^ 
In this manner everything was transferred to the top of tlie^ 
-crater wall that was needed there, when Bob went down to 
the dingui to roll up the half-barrel of sweepings that had 
been brought from the ship. 

Mark next looked about for the places which had seemed ‘ 
to him, on his previous visit, to have most of the character ' 
of soil. He found a plenty of these spots, mostly in de- 
tached cavities of no great extent, where the crust had not ^ 
yet formed ; or, having once formed, had been disturbed J 
by tlie action of the elements. These places he first picked , 
to pieces with his pick ; then he stirred them well up with 


THE CRATER. 


77 


a hoe, scattering a little guano in the heaps, according to 
the directions of Betts. When this was done, he sent 
down the bucket, and hauled up the sweepings of the deck, 
which Bob had ready for him below. Nor was this all 
Bob had done during the hour Mark was at work in the 
sun on the summit of the crater. He had found a large 
deposit of sea-weed on a rock near the island, and had 
made two or three trips with the dingui, back and forth, 
to transfer some of it to the crater. After all his toil and 
trouble, 'the worthy fellow did not get more than a hogs- 
head full of this new material, but Mark thought it well 
worth while to haul it up, and to endeavor to mix it with 
his compost. This was done by making it up in bundles, 
as one would roll up hay, of a size that the young .man 
could manage. 

Bob now joined his friend on the crater-wall, and as- 
sisted in carrying the sea-weed to the places prepared to 
receive it, when both of the mariners next set about mixing 
it up with the other ingredients of the intended soil. After 
working for another hour in this manner, they were of 
opinion that they might make the experiment of putting in 
the seed. Melons of both sorts, and of the very best 
quality, were now put into the ground, as were also beans, 
pease, and Indian corn or maize. A few cucumber-seeds, 
and some onions were also tried. Captain Crutchley having 
brouglit with him a considerable quantity of the common 
garden seeds, as a benefit conferred on the natives of the 
islands he intended to visit, and through them on future 
navigators. This care proceeded from his owners, who 
were what is called “ Friends,” and who somewhat oddly 
blended benevolence with the practices of worldly gain. 

Mark certainly knew very little of gardening, but Bob 
could turn his hand to almost anything. Several mistakes 
were made notwithstanding, more particularly in the use 
of the seed, with which they were not particularly ac- 
quainted. Mark’s Reef lay just within the tropics, it is 
true (in 21° south latitude), but the constant sea-breeze 
rendered its climate much cooler than would otherwise 
have been the case. Thus the pease and beans, and even 


78 


' THE CRATER. 


the onions, did better, perhaps, on the top of the crater, 
than they would have done in it ; but the okra, egg-plants, 
melons, and two or three other seeds that they used, would 
probably have succeeded better had they been placed in 
the warmest spots that could be found. In one respect 
Mark made a good gardener. He knew that moisture was 
indispensable to the growth of most plants, and had taken 
care to put all his seeds into cavities where the rain that 
fell (and he had no reason to suppose that the dry season 
had yet set in) would not run off and be wasted. On this 
point he manifested a good deal of judgment, using his 
hoe in a way to avoid equally the danger of having too 
much or too little water. 

It was dinner-time before Mark and Betts were ready 
to quit the “ Summit,” as they now began to term the only 
height in their solitary domains. Bob had foreseen the 
necessity of a shade, and had thrown an old royal into the 
boat. With this, and two or three light spars, he contrived 
to make a sort of canopy down in the crater, beneath 
which* he and Mark dined, and took their siestas. While 
resting on a spare studding-sail that had also been brought 
along, the mariners talked over what they had done, and 
what it might be best to undertake next. 

Thus far Mark had been working under a species of 
excitement that was probably natural enough to his situa- 
tion, but which wanted the coolness and discretion that are 
necessary to render our efforts the most profitable to our- 
selves or to others. Now that the feverish feeling which 
set him at work so early to make a provision against wants 
which, at the worst, were merely problematical, had sub- 
sided, Mark began to see that there remained many things 
to do, which were of even more pressing necessity than 
anything yet done. Among the first of these there was 
the perfect security of the ship. So long as she rode at a 
single anchor, she could not be considered as absolutely 
safe ; for a shift of wind would cause her to swin^ against 

o o 

the “ sea-wall,” as he called the natural breakwater outside 
of her, where, if not absolutely wrecked, she might receive 
material damage. Prudence required, therefore, that the 


THE CRATER. 


79 


ship should be moored as well as anchored. Neverthe- 
less, there was a good deal of truth in what Mark had said 
touching the plants growing while he and Bob were busy 
at other matters ; and this thought, of itself, formed a suf- 
ficient justification for what he had just done, much as it 
had been done under present excitement. As they lay 
under the shade of the royal, our mariners discussed these 
matters, and matured some plans for the future. 

At two o’clock Mark and Bob resumed their work. 
The latter suggested the necessity of getting food and 
water ashore for the pigs, as an act that humanity imperi- 
ously demanded of them ; not humanity in the sense of 
feeling for our kind, but in the sense in which we all ought 
to feel for animal suffering, whether endured by man or 
beast. Mark assented as to the food, but was of opinion 
a thunder shower was about to pass over the reef. The 
weather certainly did wear this aspect, and Bob was con- 
tent to wait the result, in order to save himself unnecessary 
trouble. As for the pigs, they were still in the crater 
rooting, as it might be for life or death, though nothing 
edible had as yet rewarded them for their toil. Perhaps 
they found it pleasant to be thrusting their noses into some- 
thing that resembled soil, after so long a confinement to 
the planks of a ship. Seeing them at work in this man- 
ner, suggested to Mark to try another experiment, which 
certainly looked far enough ahead, as if he had no great 
hopes of getting off the island for years to come. Among 
the seeds of Captain Crutchely were those of oranges, 
lemons, limes, shaddocks, figs, and gra23es ; all plants well 
enough suited to the place, if there were only soil to nour- 
ish them'. Now, one of the hogs had been rooting, as 
best he might, just under the wall, on the northern side of 
the crater, making a long row of little hillocks of earthy 
ashes, at unequal distances it is true, but well enough dis- 
posed for the nature of the different fruits, could they only 
be got to grow. Along this irregular row of hillocks did 
Mark bury his seeds, willing to try an experiment which 
might possibly benefit some other human being, if it never 
did any good to himself. When this was done, he and 
Betts left the crater, driving the hogs out before them. 


80 


THE CRATER. 


Having made liis plantation, Mark felt a natural desire > 
to preserve it. He got the royal, therefore, and succeeded 
in fastening it up as a substitute for a gate, in their natural 
gate-way. Had the pigs met with any success in rooting, 
it ife not probable this slight obstacle would have prevented 
their finding their way again into the cavity of the crater ; 
but, as it was, it proved all-sulficient, and the sail was per- 
mitted to hang before the hole until a more secure gate 
was suspended in its stead. 

t The appearances of the thunder-shower were so much 
increased by this time, that our mariners hastened back to 
the ship in order to escape a ducking. They had hardly 
got on board before the gust came, a good deal of water 
falling, though not in the torrents in which one sometimes 
sees it stream down within the tropics. In an hour it was 
all over, the sun coming out bright and scorching after 
the passage of the gust. One thing occurred, however, 
which at first caused both of the seamen a good deal of 
uneasiness, and again showed them the necessity there was 
for mooring the ship. The wind shifted from the ordinary 
direction of the trades, during th'fe squall, to a current of 
air that was nearly at right angles to the customary course. 
This caused the ship to swing, and brought her so near the 
sea-wall, that once or twice her side actually rubbed against 
it. Mark was aware, by his previous sounding, that this 
wall rather impended over its base, being a part of an old 
crater, beyond a question, and that there was little danger 
of the vessel’s hitting the bottom, or taking harm in any 
other way than by friction against the upper part ; but this 
friction might become too rude, and finally endanger the, 
safety of the vessel. 

As soon as the weather became fine, however, the trades 
returned, and the ship swung round to her old berth. Bob 
now suggested the expediency of carrying out their heavi- 
est kedge ashore, of planting it in the rocks, and of run- 
ning out to it two or three parts of a hawser, to which a 
line of planks might be lashed, and thus give them the 
means of entering and quitting the ship, without having 
recoui-se to the dingui. Mark approved of this plan, and, 


THE CRATER. 


81 


it requiring a raft to carry ashore the hedge, tlie dingui 
being so light they were afraid to trust it, it was decided 
to commence that work in the morning. For the rest of 
tlie present day nothing further was done, beyond light 
and Df^cessary jobs, and continuing the examination of the 
island Mark was curious to look at the effect of the 
shower, both in reference to his plantations, and to the 
quantity of fresh water that might have lodged on the reef. 
It was determined, therefore, to pass an hour or two ashore 
before the night shut in again. 

Previously tOsquitting the ship. Bob spoke of the poultry. 
There were but six hens, a cock, and five ducks, left. 
They were all as low in flesh and spirits, as it was usual 
to find birds that have been at sea fifty days, and the honest 
tar proposed turning them all adrift on the reef, to make 
their own living in the best way they could. Now and 
then a little food might be put in their way, but let them 
have a chance for their lives. Mark assented at once, and 
the coops wo^e opened. Each fowl was carried to the taff- 
rail, and tossed into the air, when it flew down upon the 
reef, a distance of a couple of hundred feet, almost as a 
matter of course. Glad enough were the poor things to 
be thus liberated. To Mark’s surprise,* no sooner did they 
reach the reef, than to work they went, and commenced 
picking up something with the greatest avidity, as if let 
loose in the best supplied poultry-yard. Confident there 
was nothing for even a hen to glean on the rocks when lie 
left there, the young man could not account for this, until 
turning his eyes inboard, he saw the ducks doing the same 
thing on deck. Examining the food of these last-mentioned 
animals, he found there were a great number of minute 
mucilaginous particles on the deck, which no doubt had 
descended with the late rain, and which all the birds, as 
well as the hogs, seemed eager to devour. -Here, them, 
was a supjdy, though a short-lived one, of a manna suited 
to those creatures, which might render them happy for a 
few hours at least. Bob caught the ducks, and tossed 
them overboard, when they floundered about and enjoyed 
themselves in a way that communicated a certain pleasure 


82 


THE CRATER. 


even to the desolate and shipwrecked men who had set 
them at liberty. Nothing with life now remained in the 
ship but the goat, and Mark thought it best not to turn 
her ashore until they had greater facilities for getting the 
necessary food to her than the dingui afforded. As she 
was not likely to breed, there was no great use in keeping 
tliis animal at all, to say nothing of the means of feeding 
her for any length of time ; but Mark was unwilling to 
take her life, since Providence had brought them all to 
that place in company. Then he thought she might be a 
pretty object leaping about the cliffs of the crater, giving 
the island a more lively and inhabited appearance, though 
he foresaw she might prove very destructive to his planta- 
tions, did his vegetables grow. As there was time enough 
to decide on her final fate, it was finally settled she should 
be put ashore, and have a comfortable fortnight, even 
though condemned to die at the end of that brief period. 

On landing, every hole in the face of the cliff was 
found filled with fresh water. Betts was of opinion that 
the water-casks might all be filled with the water which 
was thus collected, the fluid having seemingly all flowed 
into these receptacles, while little had gone into the sea. 
This was encouragifig for the future, at any rate ; the want 
of water, previously to this shower, appearing to Mark to 
be a more probable occurrence than the want of food. 
The sea might furnish the last, on an emergency, while it 
could do nothing with the first. But the manner in which 
the ducks were enjoying themselves in these fresh pools 
can scarcely be imagined ! As Mark stood looking at 
them, a doubt first suggested itself to his mind concerning 
the propriety of men’s doing anything that ran counter to 
their instincts, with any of the creatures of God. Pet birds 
in cages, birds that were created to fly, had always been 
disagreeable- to him ; nor did he conceive it to be any 
answer to say that they were born in cages, and had never 
known liberty. They were created with an instinct for 
flight, and intense must be their longings to indulge in the 
power which nature had bestowed on them. In the cage 
in which he now found himself, though he could run, 


THE CRATER. 


83 

walk, leap, swim, or do aught that nature designed him 
to do, in the way of mere animal exploits, young Mark 
felt how bitter were the privations he was condemned to 
suffer. 

The rain had certainly done no harm, as yet, to the 
planting. All the hills were entire, as Mark and Bob 
had left them, though well saturated with water. In a few, 
there might be even too much of . the element, perhaps, 
but Mark observed that a tropical sun would soon remove 
that objection. His great apprehension was that he had 
commenced his gardening too late, and that the dry weather 
might set in too soon for the good of his vegetables ; if 
any of them, indeed, ever came up at all. Here was one 
good soaking secured, at all events ; and knowing the 
power of a tropical sun, Mark was of opinion that the 
fate of the great experiment he had tried would soon be 
known. Could he succeed in producing vegetation among 
tlie debris of the crater, he and Bob might find the means 
of subsistence during their natural lives ; but, should that 
resource fail them, all their hopes would depend on being 
able to effect their escape in a craft of their own construc- 
tion. In no case, however, but that of the direst necessity, 
did Mark contemplate the abandonment of his plan for 
getting back to the inhabited world, his country, and his 
bride ! 

That night our mariners had a sounder sleep than they 
had yet been blest with since the loss ‘of their shipmates 
and the accident to the vessel itself. The two following 
days they passed in securing the ship. Bob actually made 
a very respectable catamaran, or raft, out of the spare 
spars, sawing the topmasts and lower yards in two for that 
purpose, and fastening them together with ingenuity and 
strength, by means of lashings. But Mark hit" upon an 
expedient for getting the two kedges ashore that prevented 
the necessity of having recourse to the raft on that occa- 
sion. These kedges lay on the poop, where they were 
habitually kept, and two men had no great difficulty in 
getting them over the stern, suspended by stoppers. Now 
Mark had ascertained that the rock of the Reef rose like 


84 


THE CRATER. 


a wall, being volcanic, like all tlie rest of the formation, 
and that the ship could float almost anywhere alongside of 
it. Aided by the rake of the stern of an old-fashionedl 
Pliiladelphia built ship, nothing was easier than to veen 
upon the cabl(i let the vessel drop in to the island, until 
the hedges actually hung over the rocks, and then lower 
the last down. All this was done, and the raft was re- 
served for other purposes. Notwithstanding the facility 
with which the hedges were got ashore, it took Mark and 
Bob quite half a day to plant them in the rock precisely 
where they were wanted. When this was accomplished, 
however, it was so effectually done as to render the hold 
even greater than that of the sheet-anchor. The stocks 
were not used at all, but the hedges were laid flat on the 
rock, quite near to each other, and in such a manner that 
the flukes were buried in crevices of the lava, giving a 
most secure hold, while the shanks came out through 
natural grooves, leading straight towards the ship. Six 
parts of a hawser were bent to the hedges, three to each, 
and these parts were held at equal distances by pieces of 
spars ingeniously placed between them, the whole being 
kept in its place by regular stretchers that were lashed 
along the hawsers at distances of ten feet, giving all the 
parts of the ropes the same level. Before these stretchers 
were secured, the ship was hove ahead by her cable, and 
the ^ several parts of the hawser brought to an equal 
strain. This left the vessel about a hundred feet * from 
the island, a convenient, and if the anchor held, a safe 
position ; though Mark left little fear of losing the ship 
against rocks that were so perpendicular and smooth. On 
the stretchers, planks were next laid and lashed, thus 
making a clear passage between the vessel and the shore, 
that might be used at all times, without recourse to the 
dingui ; besides mooring the ship head and stern, thereby 
keeping her always in the same place, and in the same 
position. 

The business of securing the ship occupied nearly two 
days, and was not got through with until about the middle 
of the afternoon of the second day. It was Saturday, 


THE CRATER. 


85 


and Mark liad determined to make a good beginning, and 
keep all their Sabbaths, in future, as holy times, set apart 
for the special service of the Creator. He had been born 
and educated an Episcopalian, but Bob claimed to be a 
Quaker, and what was more he was a little stiff in some of 
his notions on the opinion of his sect. The part of New 
Jersey in which Betts was born, had many persons of this 
religious persuasion, and he was not only bom, but, in one 
sense, educated in their midst ; though the early age at 
which he went to sea had very much unsettled his prac- 
tice, much the most material part of the tenets of these 
good persons. When the two knocked off work, Saturday 
afternoon, therefore, it was wifh an understanding that the 
next day was to be one of rest in the sense of Christians, 
and, from that time henceforth, that the Sabbath was to 
be kept as a holy day. Mark had ever been inclined to 
soberness of thought on such subjects. His early engage- 
ment to Bridget had kept him from falling into the ways 
of most mariners, and time and again had a future state of 
being been the subject of discourse between him and his 
betrothed. As the seasons of adversity are those in which 
men are the most apt to bethink them of their duties to 
God, it is not at all surprising that one of this disposition, 
thus situated, felt renewed demands on his gratitude and 
repentance. 

While Mark, in this frame of mind, went rambling 
around his nairrow domains. Bob got the dingui, and pro- 
ceeded with his fishing-tackle towards some of the naked 
rocks that lifted their caps above the surface of the sea, 
in a northwesterly direction from the crater. Of these 
naked rocks there were near twenty, all within a mile of 
the crater, and the largest of them not containing more 
than six or eight acres of dry surface. Some were less 
than a hundred feet in diameter. The great extent and 
irregular formation of the reefs all around the island, kept 
the water smooth for some distance on all sides of it ; and 
it was only when the rollers were sent in by heavy gales, 
that the dingui could not move about, in this its proper 
sphere, in safety. 


86 


THE CRATER. 


Betts was very fond of fishing, and could pass whole 
days at a time, in that quiet amusement,' provided he had 
a sufficient'supply of tobacco. Indeed, one of the greatest 
consolations this man possessed, under the present misfor- 
tune, was the ample store of this weed which was to be 
found in the ship. Every man on board the Eancocus, 
Mark alone excepted, made use of tobacco ; and for so 
long a voyage, the provision laid in had been very abun- 
dant. On this occasion. Bob enjoyed his two favorite oc- 
cupations to satiety, masticating the weed while he fished. 

With Mark it was very different. He was fond of his 
fowling-piece, but of little use was that weapon in his pres- 
ent situation. Of all the birds that frequented the adja- 
cent i:ocks, not one was of a sort that would be eaten, un- 
less in cases of famine. As he walked over the island, 
that afternoon, his companion was the goat, which had been 
driven ashore on the new gangway, and was enjoying its 
liberty almost as much at the ducks. As the animal 
frisked about him, accompanying him everywhere, in his 
walks, Mark was reminded of the goats of Crusoe, and 
his mind naturally adverted to the different accounts of 
shipwrecks of which he had read, and to a comparison be- 
tween his own condition and those of other mariners who 
had been obliged to make their homes, for a time, on 
otherwise uninhabited islands. 

In this comparison, Mark saw that many things made 
greatly against him, on the one hand ; while, on the other, 
there were many others for ,which he had every reason to 
be profoundly grateful. In the first place, this island was, 
as yet, totally without vegetation of every kind. It had 
neither plant, shrub, nor tree. In this he suffered a great 
privation, and it even remained to be proved by actual 
experiment, whether he was master of what might be con- 
sidered the elements of soil. It occurred to him that 
something like vegetation must have shown itself in or 
about the crater, did its debris contain the fertilizing prin- 
ciple, Mark not being sufficiently versed in the new science 
of chemical agriculture to understand that the admixtures 
of certain elements might bring to life forces that then 


THE CRATER. 


87 


were dormant. Then the Reef had no water. This was 
a very, very great privation, the most serious of al],\and 
might prove to be a terrible calamity. It is true that, just 
at that moment, there was a shower every day, and some- 
times two or three of them ; but it was then spring, and 
there could be little reason to doubt that droughts would 
come in the hot and dry season. As a last objection, the 
Reef had no great extent, and no variety, the eye taking 
it all in at a glance, while the crater was its sole relief 
against the dullest monotony. Nor was there a bit of wood, 
or fuel of any sort to cook with, after the supply now in 
the ship should be exhausted. Such were the leading dis- 
advantages of the situation in which our mariners were 
placed, as compared with those into which most other 
shipwrecked seamen had been thrown. 

The advantages, on the other hand, Mark, in humble 
gratitude to God, admitted to be very great. In the first 
place, the ship and all she contained was preserved, giving 
them a dwelling, clothes, food, and water, as well as fuel, 
for a long time to come ; possibly, aided by what might be 
gleaned on even that naked reef, sufficient to meet all their 
wants for the duration of a human life. The cargo of the 
Rancocus was of no great extent, and of little value in a 
civilized country ; but Mark knew that it included many 
articles that would be of vast service where he was. The 
beads and coarse trinkets with which it had been intended 
to trade with the savages, were of no use whatever, it is 
.true ; but the ship’s owners were painstaking and thought- 
ful Quakers, as has been already intimated, who blended 
with great shrewdness in the management of their worldly 
affairs, a certain regard to benevolence in general, and a 
desire to benefit their species. On this principle, they had 
caused a portion of their cargo to be made up, sending, in 
addition to all the ruder and commoner tools that could 
be used by a people without domestic animals, a small 
supply of rugs, coarse clothes, coarse earthen-ware, and a 
hundred similar things, that would be very serviceable to 
any who knew how to use them. Most of the seeds came 
fi-om these thoughtful merchants. 


88 - 


THE CRATER. 


If fresh water were absolutely wanting on the reef, it 
rained a good deal ; in the rainy season it must rain for a 
few weeks almost incessantly, and the numerous cavities 
in the ancient lava formed natural cisterns of great capac- 
ity. By taking the precaution of filling up the water- 
casks of the ship periodically, there was little danger of 
suffering for the want of this great requisite. It is true, 
the sweet, cool, grateful draught, that was to be got from 
the gushing spring, must be forgotten ; but rain-water col- 
lected in clean rock, and preserved in well-sweetened 
casks, was very tolerable drinking for seamen. Captain 
Crutchely, moreover, had a lilterer for the cabin, and 
through it all the ’water used there was habitually passed. 

In striking the balance between the advantages and dis- 
advantages of his own situation, as compared with that of 
other shipwrecked mariners, Mark confessed that he had 
quite as much reason to be grateful as to repine. The 
last he was resolved not to do, if possible ; and he pursued 
his walk in a more calm and resigned mood than he had 
been in since the ship entered among the shoals. 

Mark, naturally enough, cast his eyes around him, and 
asked himself the question what was to be done with the 
domestic animals they had now all landed. The hogs 
might, or might not be of the greatest importance to them 
as their residence on the island was or was not protracted, 
and as they found the means of feeding them. There was 
still food enough in the ship to keep these creatures for 
some months, and food that had been especially laid in for 
that purpose ; but that food would serve equally well for 
the fowls, and our young man was of opinion that eggs 
would be of more importance to himself and Betts, than 
hog’s flesh. Then there was the goat ; she would soon 
cease to be of any use at all, and green food was not to be 
had for her. A little hay, however, remained ; and Mark 
was fully determined that Kitty, as the playful little thing 
was called, should live at least as long as that lasted. ^ She 
was fortunate in being content with a nourishment that no 
other animal wanted. 

Mark could see absolutely nothing on the rocks for a 


THE CRATER. 


• 89 


bird to live on, yet were the fowls constantly picking up 
something. They probably found insects that escaped his 
sight ; while it was certain that the ducks were reveling 
in the pools of fresh water, of which there might, at that 
moment, have been a hundred oif the Reef. As all these 
creatures were, as yet, regularly fed from the supplies in 
the ship, each seemed to be filled with joy of existence, 
and Mark, as he walked among them, felt how profound 
ought to be his own gratitude, since he was still in a state 
of being which admitted of a consciousness of happiness 
so much beyond anything that was known to the inferior 
animals of creation. He had his mind, with all its stores 
gathered from study and observation, his love for God, and 
his hopes of a blessed future, ever at command. Even his 
love for Bridget had its sweets, as well as its sorrows. It 
was grateful to think of her tenderness to himself, her 
beauty, her constancy, of which he would not for a moment 
doubt, and of all the innocent and delightful converse they 
had had during a courtship that occupied so much of their 
brief lives. 

Just as the sun was setting. Bob returned from his fish- 
ing excursion. To Mark’s surprise^ he saw that the dingui 
floated almost with her gunwale-to, and he hastened down 
to meet his friend, who came ashore in a little bay, quite 
near the gate-way, and in which the rock did not rise as 
much like a wall as it did on most of the exterior of the 
Reef. Bob had caught about a dozen fish, some of which 
were of considerable size, though all were of either species 
or varieties that were unknown to them both. Selecting 
two of the most promising looking, for their own use, he 
threw the others on the rocks, where the pigs and poultry 
might give them a trial. Nor was it long before these 
creatures were hard at work on them, disregarding the 
scales and fins. At first the hens were a little delicate, 
probably from having found animal food enough for their 
present wants in the insects ; but, long before the game 
was demolished, they had come in for their full share. 
This experiment satisfied the mariners that there would be 
no difficulty in furnishing plenty of food for all their stock, 


90 


THE CRATER. 


and for any length of time, Kitty excepted. It is true, the 
pork and the poultry would be somewhat fishy ; but that 
would be a novelty, and should it prove disagreeable on 
tasting it, a little clean feeding, at the proper moment, 
would correct the flavor. 

’ But the principal cargo of the dingui was not the dozen 
fish mentioned. Bob had nearly filled the boat with a sort 
of vegetable loam, that he had found lodged in the cavity 
of one of the largest rocks, and which, from the signs 
around the place, he supposed to have been formed by de- 
posits of sea-weed. By an accident of nature, this cavity 
in the rock received a current, which carried large quan- 
tities of floating weed into it, while every storm probably 
had added to its stores, since the mass had risen above the 
common level of the sea, by throwing fresh materials on 
to the pile by means of the waves, nothing quitting it. 
Bob reported that there were no signs of vegetation around 
the rock, which circumstance, however, was easily enough 
accounted for by the salt water that was incessantly moist- 
ening the surface, and which, while it took with it the 
principle of future, was certain to destroy all present, vege- 
table life ; or, all but that which belongs exclusively to 
aquatic plants. 

“ How much of this muck do you suppose is to be found 
on your rock. Bob ? ” asked Mark, after he had examined 
the dingui’s cargo by sight, taste, and smell. “ It is sur- 
prisingly like a rich earth, if it be not actually so.” 

“ Lord bless you, Mr. Mark, there is enough on’t to fill 
the old ’Cocus, ag’in and ag’in. How deep it is, I don’t 
pretend to know ; but it ’s a good hundred paces across it, 
and the spot is as round as that there chimbly, that you 
call a cr’ature.” 

“ If that be the case, we will try our hands at it next 
week, and see what can be done with an importation. I do 
not give up the blessed hope of^ the boat. Bob — that you 
will always bear in mind — but it is best to keep an eye on 
the means of living, should it please God to prevent our 
getting to sea again.” 

“ To sea, Mr. Mark, neither you nor I, nor any mortal 


THE CRATER. 


91 


man will ever get, in the old ’Cocus agin, as I know by 
the looks of things outside of us. ’T will never do to plant 
in my patch, however, for the salt water must wash it 
whenever it blows ; though a very little work, too, might 
keep it out, when I come to think on it. Sparrowgrass 
would grow there, as it is, desperately well ; and Friend 
Abraham White had both seeds and roots put up for the 
use of the savages, if a body only know’d whereabouts to 
look for them, among the lot of rubbish of that sort, that 
he sent aboard.” 

“All the seeds and roots are in two or three boxes, in 
the steerage,” answered Mark. “ ITl just step up to the 
crater and bring a shovel, to throw this loam out of the 
boat with, while you can clean the fish and cook the sup- 
per. A little fresh food, after so much salt, will be both 
pleasant and good for us.” ' 

Bob assented, and each went his way. Mark threw the 
loam into a wheelbarrow, of which Friend Abraham had 
put no less than three in the ship, as presents to the sav- 
ages, and he wheeled it, at two or three loads, into the 
crater, where he threw it down in a pile, intending to make 
a compost heap of all the materials of the sort he could lay 
his hands on. 

As for Bob he cleaned both fish, taking them on board 
the shipi to do so. He put the largest and coarsest into 
the coppers, after cutting it up, mixing with it onions, pork, 
and ship’s bread, intending to start a fire beneath it early 
in the morning, and cook a sort of chowder. The other 
he fried, Mark and he making a most grateful meal on it, 
that evening. 


92 


THE CRATER. 


CHAPTER VIL 

Be thou at peace ! Th’ all-seeing eye, 

Pervading earth, and air, and sky, 

The searching glance which none may flee, 

Is still, in mercy, turn’d on thee. 

Mks. Hemans. 

The Sabbath ever dawns on the piously-inclined with 
hope and a devout gratitude to the Creator for all his mer- 
cies. This is more apt to be the case in genial seasons, 
and rural abodes, perhaps, than amidst the haunts of men, 
and when the thoughts are diverted from the proper chan- 
nels by the presence of persons around us. Still greater 
is the influence of absolute solitude, and that increased by 
the knowledge of a direct and visible dependence on the 
Providence of God, for the means of even prolonging ex- 
istence. In the world, men lose sight of this dependence, 
fancying themselves and their powers of more account 
- than the truth would warrant, and even forgetting whence 
these very boasted powers are derived ; but man, when 
alone, and in critical circumstances, is made to feel that he 
is not sufficient for his own wants, and turns with humility 
and hope to the divine hand that upholds him. 

With feelings of this character did Mark and Betts keep 
their first Sabbath on the Reef. The former read the 
morning service from beginning to end, while the latter 
sat by, an attentive listener. The only proof given of any 
difference in religious faith between our mariners, was of 
so singular a nature as to merit notice.- Notwithstanding 
Bob’s early familarity with Mark, his greater age, and the 
sort of community of feeling and interest created by their 
common misfortune, the former had not ceased to treat the 
last with the respect due to his office. This deference 
never deserted him, and he had not once since the ship was 



niMiTBi 


THE CRATER. 


93 


embayed, entered the cabin without pulling off his hat. 
As soon as church commenced, however. Bob resumed his 
tarpaulin, as a sort of sign of his own orthodoxy in the 
faith of his fathers ; making it a point to do as they had 
done in meeting, and slightly concerned lest his companion 
might fall into the error of supposing he was a man likely 
to be converted. Mark also observed that, in the course of 
that Sabbath, Bob used the pronoulis “ thee ” and “ thou,” 
on two or three occasions, sounding oddly enough in the 
mouth of the old salt. 

Well did both our mariners prove the ethcacy of the 
divine provision of a day of rest, in a spiritual sense, on 
the occasion of this their first Sabbath on the Reef. Mark 
felt far more resigned to his fate than he could have be- 
lieved possible, while Betts declared that he should be ab- 
solutely happy, had he only a better boat than the dingui ; 
not that the dingui was at all a bad craft of its kind, but 
it wanted size. After the religious services, for which 
both our mariners had shaved and dressed, they took a 
walk together on the Reef, conversing of their situation 
and future proceedings. Bob then told Mark, for the first 
time, that, in his opinion, there was the frame and the 
other materials of a pinnace, or a large boat, somewhere 
in the hold, which it was intended to put together, when 
the ship reached the islands, as a convenience for cruising 
about among them to trade with the savages, and to trans- 
port sandal-wood. The mate had never heard of this boat, 
but acknowledged that a part of the hold had been stowed 
while he was up at Bristol, and it might have been taken 
in then. Bob confessed that he had never seen it, though 
he had worked in the stevedore’s gJ^ng ; but was confident 
he had heard Friend Abraham White and Captain Crutch- 
ely talking of its dimensions and uses. According to his 
recollection it was to be a boat considerably larger than 
the launch, and to be fitted with masts and sails, and to 
have a half-deck. Mark listened to all this patiently, 
though he firmly believed that the honest fellow was de- 
ceiving himself the whole time. Such a craft could scarcely 
be in the ship, and he not hear of it, if he did not actually 


94 


THE CRATER. 


see it; though he thought it possible that the captain and 
owners may have had some such plan in contemplation, 
and conversed together on it, in Betts’s presence. As 
there were plenty of tools on board, how^ever, by using ^ 
stuff of one sort or another, that was to be found in tlie 
ship Mark had strong hopes of their being able, between 
them, to construct, in the course of time — though he be- 
lieved a long time might be necessary — a craft of some 
sort, that should be of sufficient stability to withstand the 
billows of that ordinarily mild sea, and enable them to re-^ 
turn to their homes and friends. In conversing of things j 
of chis sort, in religious observances, and in speculating i 
on the probable fate of their shipmates, did our mariners 
pass this holy day. Bob was sensibly impressed with the 
pause in their ordinary pursuits, and lent himself to the , 
proper feelings of the occasion with a zeal and simplicity 
that gave Mark great satisfaction ; for, hitherto, while 
aware that his friend was as honest a fellow as ever lived, ^ 
in the common acceptation of such a phrase, he had not 
supposed him in the least susceptible of religious impres- 
sions. But the world had suddenly lost its hold on Betts, 
the barrier offered by the vast waters of the Pacific, being ( 
almost as impassable, in his actual circumstances, as that 
of the grave ; and the human heart turns to God in its 
direst distress, as to tlie only being who can administer 
relief. It is when men are prosperous that they vainly 
imagine they are sufficient for their own wants, and are ^ 
most apt to neglect the /hand that alone can give durable 
support. 

The followin<x mornino; our mariners resumed their more 
worldly duties with renewed powers. While the kettle 
was boiling for their tea, they rolled ashore a couple of 
empty water-casks, and filled them with fresh water, at one 
of the largest natural reservoirs on the reef ; it having * 
rained hard in the night. After breakfast, Mark walked 
round to examine his piles of loam in the crater, while ^ 
Bob pulled away in the dingui, to catch a few fish, and to 
get a new cargo of the earth ; it being the intention of 
Mark to join him at the next trip, with the raft, which re- 


THE CRATER. 


95 


quirerl some little arranging, however, previously to its 
being used for such a purpose. The rain of the past night 
had thoroughly washed the pile of earth, and, on tasting 
i^t, Mark was convinced that much of the salt it contained 
Jhad been carried off. This encouraged him to persevere 
Jin his gardening projects. As yet, the spring had only 
just commenced, and he was in hopes of being able to 
nrenare one bed, at least, in time to obtain useful vege- 



f The Kancocus had a great many planks and boards in 
Mer hold, a part of the ample provision made by her own- 
^^ers for the peculiar voyage on which she had been sent. 
)Of real cargo, indeed, she had very little, the commerce 
between the civilized man and the savage being ordinarily 
jion those great principles of Free Trade, of which so much 
1 is said of late years, while so little is understood, and 
(.which usually give the lion’s share of the profit to them* 
^/who need it least. With some of these planks, Mark '' 
made a staging for his raft. By the time he was ready. 
Bob returned with a load of loam, and, on the next out- 
. ward voyage, the raft was taken as well as the dingui. 
bMark had fitted pins and grommets, by which the raft was 
rowed, he and Bob impelling it, when light, very easily at 
the rate of two miles in the hour. 

Mark found Betts’s deposit of decayed vegetable matter 
even larger and more accessible than he had hoped for. 

hundred loads might be got without even using a wheel- 
barrow ; and to all appearances there was enough of it to 
' give a heavy dressing to many acres, possibly to the whole 
^ area of the crater. The first thing the young man did 
was to choose a suitable place, dig it well up, mixing a 
sufficiency of guano with it, agreeably to Bett’s directions, 
and then to put in some of his asparagus roots. After 
\his he scattered a quantity of the seed, raking the ground 
well after sowing. By the time this was done, Bob had 
'j- both dingui and raft loaded, when they pulled the last back 
, to the reef, towing the boat. In this manner our two 
mariners continued to work most of the time for the next 
fortnight, making, daily, more or less trips to the “ Loam 


96 


THE CRATER. 


Rock,” as they called the place where this precious deposit 
had been made; though they neglected none of their other 
necessary duties. As the distance was short, they could 
come and go many times in a day, transporting at eachi, 
trip about as much of the loam as would make an ordinary 
American cart-load of manure. In the whole, by Mark’s , 
computation, they got across about fifty of these cargoes ‘ 
in the course of their twelve days’ work. The entire day, 
however, was on no occasion given up wholly to this pur-^ 
suit. On the contrary, many little odd tasks were com-] 
pleted, which were 5et by their necessities, or by fore-| 
thought and prudence. All the empty water-casks, for^ 
one thing, were rolled ashore, and filled at the largest^ 
pool ; the frequency of the rains admonishing them of the | 
wisdom of making a provision for the dry season. Tlie<^ 
Rancocus had a good deal of water still left in her, some of 
It being excellent Delaware River water, though she had 
filled up at Valparaiso, after passing the Horn. Mark| 
counted the full casks, and allowing ten gallons a day for , 
Bob and himself, a good deal more than could be wanted, 
there remained in the ship fresh water enough to last them . 
two years. It is true, it was not such water as the palater 
often craved of a warm day ; but they were accustomed to 
it, and it was sweet. By keeping it altogether between 
decks, the sun had no power on it, and it was even more 
palatable than might have been supposed. Mark occasion- 


ally longed for one good drink at some gushing spring that^ 


he remembered at home, it is true ; and Bob was a little 


in the habit of extolling a particular well that, it would ^ 
seem, his family were reputed to have used for several ,i 
generations. Notwithstanding these little natural back- 
slidings on this subject, our mariners might be thought 
well off on the score of water, having it in great abundance, 
and with no reasonable fear of ever losing it altogether.^ 
I he casks taken ashore were filled for their preservation, 
as well as for convenience, an old sail being spread over 
them, after they were rolled together and chocked. As'j 
yet, no water was given to any of the stock, all the ani- 
mals finding it in abundance, in the cavities of the lava. 


THE CRATER. 


97 


Some of the time, moreover, Betts passed in fishing, 
r” supplying not only Mark and himself, but the pigs and the 
^ poultry, with as much food as was desired. Several of 
^!jthe fish caught turned out to be delicious, while others 
^were of a quality that caused them to be thrown into the 
compost heap. A cargo of guano was also imported, 
\ the rich manure being mixed up in liberal quantities with 
,the loam. At the end of the first week of these voy^ages 
)to Loam Rock, Betts went out to fish in a new direction, 
^^passing to windward of the “ sea-wall,” as they called the 
t^yeef that protected the ship, and pulling towards a bit of 
quaked rock, a short distance beyond it, where he fancied 
Mie might find a particular sort of little fish, that greatly 
I resembled the Norfolk hog-fish, one of the most delicious 
'little creatures for the pan that is to be found in all the 
^ finny tribe. He had been gone a couple of hours, when 
'^Mark, who was at work within the crater, picking up the 
^'^ncrusted ashes that formed its surface, heard Bob’s shout 
^outside, as if he wished assistance. Throwing down the 
^pick, our young man ran out, and was not a little surprised 
^to see the sort of cargo with which Bob was returning to 
' port. It would seem that a great collection of sea- weed 
had formed to windward of the rock where Bob had gone 
to fish, at which spot it ordinarily gathered in a pile until 
the heap became too large to lodge any longer, when 
^ owing to the form of the rock, it invariably broke adrift, 
ifand passed to the southward of the Reef, floating to lee- 
^wafd, to fetch up on some other rock, or island, in that 
direction. Bob had managed to get this raft round a par- 
vticular point in the Reef, when the wind and current car- 
Iried it, as near as might be, directly towards the crater 
^He was calling to Mark to come to his assistance, to help 
^et the raft into a sort of bay, ahead of him, where it 
might be lodged ; else would there be the danger of its 
’^drifting past the Reef, after all his pains. Our young 
rman saw at once what was wanted, got a line, succeeded 
fin throwing it to Bob, and by hauling upon it brought the 
whole mass ashore in the very spot Betts wished to see it 
land‘d 


7 


98 


THE CRATER. 


This sea-weed proved to be a great acquisition on more 
accounts than one. There was as much of it in quantity, 
as would have made two good-sized loads of hay. Then, 
many small shell-fish were found among it, which the pig^ 
and poultry ate with avidity. It also contained seeds, ^ 
that the fowls picked up as readily as if it had been corn. 
The hogs moreover masticated a good deal of the weed,! 
and poor Kitty, the only one of the domestic animals ou] 
the Keef that was not now living to its heart’s content 
nibbled at it, with a species of half-doubting faith in i 
salubrity. Although it was getting to be late in the after] 

. noon, Mark and Bob got two of Friend Abraham White' 
pitchforks (for the worthy Quaker had sent these, among 
other implements of husbandry, as a peace-offering to the|j 
Fejee savages), and went to work with a hearty good-will, | 
landed all this weed, loaded it up, and wheeled it into tlie 
crater, leaving just enough outside to satisfy the pigs and' 
the poultry. This task concluded the first week of thq 
labor already mentioned. | 

At the termination of the second week, Mark and Betts 
held a council on the subject of their future proceedings.^ 
At this consultation it was decided that it would be better 
to finish the picking up of a considerable plot of ground, 
one of at least half an acre in extent, that was already 
commenced, within the crater, scatter their compost over^i 
it, and spade all up together, and plant, mixing in as much J 
of the sea- weed as they could conveniently spade undei^ 
Notwithstanding their success in finding the loam, and this i 
last discovery of a means of getting sea-weed in largeljj 
supplies to the Reef, Mark was not very sanguine of suc-'jS 
cess in his gardening. The loam appeared to him to be 
cold and sour, as well as salt, though a good deal freshened 
by the rain since it was put in the crater ; and he knew i 
nothing of the effects of guano, except through the some--^ 
what confused accounts of Bob. Then the plain of the 
crater offered nothing beside a coarse and shelly ashes. | 
These ashes were deep enough for any agricultural pur- 1 
pose, it is true, for Mark could work a crowbar down into 
them its entire length ; but they appeared to him to be 


♦T 


THE CRATER. 


99 


totally wanting in the fertilizing principle. Nor could he 
account for the absence of everything like vegetation, on 
' or about the Reef, if the elements of plants of any sort 
\ were to be found in the substances of which it was com- 
posed. He had read, however, that the territory around 
active volcanoes, and which was far enough removed from 
the vent to escape from the destruction caused by lava, 
scorice and heat, was usually highly fertile, in consequence 
‘.of the ashes and impalpable dust that was scattered in the 
air; but seeing no proofs of any such fertility here, he sup- 
\ posed that the adjacent sea had swallowed up whatever 
there might have been of these bountiful gifts. With 
these impressions, it is not surprising that Mark was dis- 
posed to satisfy himself with a moderate beginning, in pref- 
erence to throwing away time and labor in endeavoring 
i to produce resources which after all would fail them. 

Mark’s plan, as laid before his companion, on the occa- 
' sion of the council mentioned, was briefly this : He pro- 
posed to pass the next month in preparing the half-acre 
they had commenced upon, and in getting in seed ; after 
which they could do no more than trust their husbandry 
to Providence and the seasons. As soon as done, with flie 
tillage, it was his idea that they ought to overhaul the ship 
thoroughly, ascertain what was actually in her, and, if the 
mate rids of the boat mentioned by Betts were really to 
be found, to set that craft up as soon as possible, and to 
get it into the water. Should they not find the frame and 
planks of the pinnace, as Betts seemed to think' they would, 
they must go to work and get out the best frame they could 
themselves, and construct such a craft as their own skill 
could contrive. After building such a boat, it was Mark’s 
opinion that he and Bob could navigate her across that 
tranquil ocean, until they reached the coast of South 
America, or some of the islands that were known to be 
friendly to the white man ; for, fifty years ago, it will be 
•’emembered, we did not })Ossess the same knowledge of 
the Pacific that we possess to-day, and mariners did not 
trust themselves always with confidence among the natives 
of its islands. With this plan pretty well sketched out^ 

Lore. 


100 


THE CRATEK. 


then, our mariners saw the first month of their captivity 
among the unknown reefs of this remote quarter of the : 
world, draw to its close. ! 

Mark was a little surprised by a proposal that he re- 
ceived from Bob, next morning, which was the Sabbath, of 
course. “ Friends have monthly meetings,” Betts observed, 

“ and he thought they ought to set up some such day on 
the Reef. He was willing to keep Christmas, if Mark 
saw fit, but rather wished to pay proper respect to all the 
festivals and observances of Friends.” Mark was secretly 
amused with this proposition, even while it pleased him. 
The monthly meeting of the Quakers was for the secular 
part of church business, as much as for the purposes of 
religious worship ; and Bob having all those concerns in 
his own hands, it was not so easy to see how a stated day 
was to aid him any in carrying out his church government. 
But Mark understood the feeling which dictated this re- 
quest, and was disposed to deal gently by it. Betts was' 
becoming daily more and more conscious of his dependence 
on a Divine Providence, in the situation in which he was 
thrown ; and his mind, as well as his feelings, naturally 
enough reverted to early impressions and habits, in their 
search for present relief. Bob had not the clearest notions 
of either the theory or practice of his sect, but he re- 
membered much of the last, and believed he should be 
acting right by conforming as closely as possible to the 
“ usages of F riends.” Mark promised to take the matter ' 
into consideration, and to come to some decision on it, at 
an early day. 

The following Monday it rained nearly the whole morn- 
ing, confining our mariners to the ship. They took that ^ 
occasion to overhaul the “ ’twixt-deck ” more thoroughly " 
than had yet been done, and particularly to give the seed- 
boxes a close examination. Much of the lumber, and ' 
most of the tools too, were stowed on this deck, and some- 
thing like a survey was also made of them. The frame 
and other materials of the pinnace were looked for, in ad- 
dition, but without any success. If in the ship at all, 
they were certainly not betwixt decks. Mark was still of 


THE CRATER. 


101 


opinion no such articles would ever be found ; but Betts 
insisted on the conversation he had overheard, and on his 
having rightly understood it. The provision of tools was 
very ample, and, in some respects, a little exaggerated in 
the way of Friend White’s expectations of civilizing the 
people of Fejee. It may be well, here, to say a word con- 
cerning the reason that the Bancocus contained so many 
of these tributes to civilization. The voyage of the ship, 
it will be remembered, was in quest of sandal-wood. This 
sandal-wood was to be carried to Canton and sold, and a 
cargo of teas taken in with the avails. Now, sandal-wood 
was supposed to be used for the purposes of idotatry, be- 
ing said to be burned before the gods of that heathenish 
people. Idolatry being one of the chiefest of all sins. 
Friend Abraham White had many compunctions and mis- 
givings of conscience touching the propriety of embarking 
hi the trade at all. It was true, that our knowledge of 
the Chinese customs did not extend far enough to render 
it certain that the wood was used for the purpose of burn- 
ing before idols, some pretending it was made into orna- 
mental furniture ; but Friend Abraham White had heard 
the first, and was disposed to provide a set-off, in the event 
of the report’s being true, by endeavoring to do something 
towards the civilization of the heathen. Had he -been a 
Presbyterian merchant, of a religious turn, it is probable 
a quantity of tracts would have been made to answer the 
purpose ; but, belonging to a sect whose practice was 
generally as perfect as its theory is imperfect. Friend 
Abraham White’s conscience was not to be satisfied with 
any such shallow contrivance. It is true that he ex- 
pected to make many thousands of dollars by the voyage, 
and doubtless would so have done, had not the accident 
befallen the ship, or had poor Captain Crutchely drank 
less in honor of his wedding-day ; but the investment in 
tools, seeds, pigs, wheelbarrows, and other matters, hon- 
estly intended to better the condition of the natives of 
Vanua Levu and Viti Levu, did not amount to a single 
cent less than one thousand dollars, lawful money of the 
republic. 


102 


THE CRATER. 


In looking over the packages**Mark found white elover 



quantity to cover most of the mount of the crater. The 
weather temporarily clearing off, he called to Bob, and 
they went ashore together, Mark carrying some of the 
grass seed in a pail, while Betts followed with a vessel to 
hold guano. Providing a quantity of the last from a 
barrel that had been previously filled with it, and covered 
to protect it from the rain, they clambered up the side of 
the crater. This was the first time either had ascended 
since the day they finished planting there, and Mark ap- 
proached his hills with good deal of freshly-revived interest 
in their fate. From them he expected very little, having 
had no loam to mix with the ashes ; but, by dwelling so 
much of late on the subject of tillage, he was not without 
faint hopes of meeting with some little reward for the. 
pains he had taken. The reader will judge of the rapt- 
ure then, as well as of the surprise, with which he first 
saw a hill of melons, already in the fourth leaf. Here, 
then, was the great problem successfully solved. Vege- 
tation had actually commenced on that hitherto barren 
mount, and the spot which had lain — how long, Mark 
knew not, but probably for a thousand years, if not for 
thousands of years, in its nakedness — was about to be 
covered with verdure, and blest with fruitfulness. The 
inert principles which, brought to act together, had pro- 
duced this sudden change from barrenness to fertility, had 
probably been near neighbors to each other all that time, 
but had failed of bringing forth their fruits, for the want 
of absolute contact. So Mark reasoned, for he nothinor 
doubted that it was Betts’s guano that had stimulated the 
otherwise barren deposit of the volcano, and caused his 
seed to germinate The tillage may have aided, as well 
as the admission of air, light, and water ; but something 
more than this, our young gardener fancied, was wanting 
I to success. That Something the manure of birds, meli- 
orated and altered by time, had supplied, and lo ! the 
glorious results were before his eyes. 

It would not be easy to portray to the reader all the 


THE CRATER. 


103 


delimit which these specks of incipient verdure conveyed 
to the mind of Mark Woolston. It far exceeded the joy 
that would be apt to be awakened by a relief from an ap- 
prehension of wanting food at a distant day, for it resem- 
bled something of the character of a new creation. He 
went from hill to hill, and everywhere did he discover 
plants,' some just peeping through the ashes, others already 
in leaf, and all seemingly growing and thriving. Fortu- 
nately, Kitty had not been on the mount for the last fort- 
night, her acquired habits, and the total nakedness of the 
hills, having kept her below with the other animals, since 
her first visits. Mark saw the necessity of keeping her 
off the elevation, which sh« would certainly climb the in- 
stant anything like verdure caught her eyes from below. 
He determined, therefore, to confine her to the ship, until 
he had taken the precautions necessary to prevent her as- 
cending the mount. This last was easily enough done. 
On the exterior of the hills there were but three places 
where even a goat could get up. This was owing to the 
circumstance that the base of the ascent rose like a wall, 
for some ten or twelve feet, everywhere but at the three 
points mentioned. It appeared to Mark as if the sea had 
formerly washed around the crater, giving tliis form to its 
bottom, for so wall-like was the rock for these ten or 
twelve feet, that it would have defied the efforts of a man 
for a long time, to overcome the difficulties of the ascent. 
At two of the places where the debris had made a rough 
footing, half an hour’s work would remove the material, 
and leave these spots as impassable as the others. At the 
third point, it might require a good deal of labor to effect 
the object. At this last place, Mark told Betts it would 
be necessary, for the moment, to make some sort of a 
fence. Within the crater, it was equally difficult to as- 
cend, except at one or two places; but these ascents our 
mariners thought of improving, by making steps, as the 
animals were effectually excluded from the plain within by 
means of the sail which served for a curtain at the gate- 
way, or hole of entrance. 

. As soon as Mark had recovered a little from his first 


104 


THE CRATER. 


surprise, he sent Bob below to bring up some buckets fiUed 
with the earth brought from Loam Rock, or island. This 
soil was laid carefully around each of the plants, the two 
working alternately at the task, until a bucket-full had ! 
been laid in each hill. Mark did not know it at the time, | 
but subsequent experience gave him reason to suspect, that I 
this forethought saved most of his favorites from prema- j 
ture deaths. Seed might germinate,- and the plants shoot 
luxuriantly from out of the ashes of the volcano, mider the 
united influence of the sun and rains, in that low latitude ; 
but it was questionable whether the nourishment to be de 
rived from such a soil, if soil it could yet be called, would 
prove to be sufficient to sustain the plants when they got 
to be of an age and size to demand all the support they 
wanted. So convinced did Mark become, as the season 
advanced, of the prudence of what he then did out of a 
mere impulse, that he passed hours, subsequently, in raising 
loam to the summit of the mount, in order to place it in 
the different hills. For this purpose. Bob rigged a little 
derrick, and fitted a whip, so that the buckets were whipped 
up, sailor-fashion, after two or three experiments made in 
lugging them up by hand had suggested to the honest fel- 
low that there might be a cheaper mode of obtaining their 
wishes. 

When Mark was temporarily satisfied with gazing at his 
new-found treasures, he went to work to scatter the grass 
seed over the summit and sides of the crater. Inside, there 
was not much motive for sowing anything, the rock being 
so nearly perpendicular ; but on the outside of the hill, or 
“ mountain,” as Bob invariably called it, the first ten or 
twelve feet excepted, there could be no obstacle to the 
seeds taking ; though from the want of soil much of it, 
Mark knew, must be lost ; but if it only took in spots, and 
gave him a few green patches for the eye to rest on, he felt 
he should be amply rewarded for his trouble. Bob scat- 
tered guano wherever he scattered grass seed, and in this 
way they walked entirely round the crater, Mark using up 
at least half of Friend Abraham White’s provision in behalf 
of the savages of Fejee, in the way of the grasses. A 


THE CRATER. 


105 


genial, soft rain soon came to moisten this seed, and to em- 
bed it with whatever there was of soil on the surface, giv- 
ing it every chance to take root that circumstances would 
allow. 

This preliminary step taken towards covering the face 
of the mount with verdure, our mariners went to work to 
lay out their garden, regularly, within the crater. Mark 
manifested a good deal of ingenuity in this matter. With 
occasional exceptions the surface of the plain, or the bot- 
tom of the crater, was an even crust of no great thickness, 
composed of concrete ashes, scoriae, etc., but which might 
have borne the weight of a loaded wagon. This crust once 
broken, which it was not very difficult to do by means of 
picks and crows, the materials beneath were found loose 
enough for the purposes of agriculture, almost without 
using the spade. Now, space being abundant, Mark drew 
lines, in fanciful and winding paths, leaving the crust for 
his walks, and only breaking into the loose materials be- 
neath, wherever he wished to form a bed. This variety 
served to amuse him and Betts, and they worked with so ^ 
much the greater zeal, as their labors produced objects 
that were agreeable to the eye, and which amused them 
now, while they promised to benefit them hereafter. As 
each bed, whether oval, winding, or straight, was dug, the 
loam and sea-weed was mixed up in it, in great abundance, 
after which it was sown, or planted. 

IMark was fully aware that many of Friend Abraham 
White’s seeds if they grew and brought their fruits to 
maturity, would necessarily change their properties in that 
climate ; some for the worse, and others for the better. 
From the Irish potato, the cabbage, -and most of the more 
northern vegetables, he did not expect much, under any 
circumstances ; but he thought he would try all, and hav- 
ing several regularly as*sorted boxes of garden-seeds, just 
as they had been purchased out of the shops of Phil- 
adelphia, his garden scarce wanted any plant that was then 
known to the kitchens of America. 

Our mariners were quite a fortnight preparing, manur- 
ing and sowing their 'parterre^ which, when complete, oc- 


106 


THE CRATER. 


cupied fully half an acre in the very centre of the crater, 
INIark intending it for the nucleus of future similar works 
tli^t might convert the whole hundred acres into a gar- 
den. By the time the work was done, the rains were less 
frequent, though it still came in showers, and those that 
were still more favorable to vegetation. In that fortnight 
the plants on the mount had made great advances, showing 
the exuberance and growth of a tropical climate. It some 
times, nay, it often happens, that when the sun is the most 
genial for vegetation, moisture is wanting to aid its power, 
and, in some respects, to counteract its influence. These 
long and periodical droughts, however, are not so much 
owing to heat as to other and local causes. Mark now 
began to hope, as the spring advanced, that his little terri- 
tory was to be exempt, in a great measure, from the curse 
of droughts, the trades and some other causes that to him 
were unknown, bringing clouds so often that not only shed 
their rain upon his garden, but which served in a great 
measure to mitigate a heat that, without shade of some sort 
of other, would be really intolerable. 

With a view to the approaching summer, our mariners 
turned their attention to the constructing of a tent within 
the crater. They got some old sails and some spars ashore, 
and soon had a spacious, as well as a comfortable habitation 
of this sort erected. Not only did they spread a spacious 
tent for themselves, within the crater, but they erected 
another, or a sort of canopy rather, on its outside, for the 
use of the animals, which took refuge beneath it, during 
the heats of the day, with an avidity that proved how wel- 
come it was. This outside shed, or cgnopy, required a 
good deal of care in its construction, to resist the wind, 
while that inside scarce ever felt the breeze. This want 
or wind, or of air in motion, indeed, formed the most se- 
rious objection to the crater, as a place of residence, in the 
hot months ; and the want of breeze that was suffered in 
the tent, set Mark to work to devise expedients for build- 
ing some sort of tent, or habitation, on the mount itself, 
where it would be always cool, provided one could get a 
protection from the fierce rays of the sun. i 


THE CRATER. 


107 


After a good deal of search, Mark selected a spot on the 
Summit, as he began to term the place, and pitched his 
tent on it. Holes were made in the soft rocks, aud pieces 
of spars were inserted, to answer for posts. With a com- 
mencement as solid as this, it was not difficult to make the 
walls of the tent (or marquee would be the better word, 
since both habitations had nearly upright sides) by means 
of an old fore-course. In order to get the canvas up there, 
however, it was found necessary to cut out the pieces be- 
low, when, by means of the purchase at the derrick, it was 
all hoisted to the Summit. 

These several arrangements occupied Mark and Bob an- 
other fortnight, completing the first quarter of a year they 
had passed on the Reef. By this time they had got accus- 
tomed to their situation, and had fallen into regular courses 
of duty, though the increasing heats admonished both of 
the prudence of not exposing themselves too much beneath 
the fiery sun at noon-day. 


108 


THE CRATER. 


/ 

CHAPTER VIIL 

Now, from the full-grown day a beamy shower 
Gleams on the lake, and gilds each glossy flower, 

Gay insects sparkle in the genial blaze, 

, Various as light, and countless as its rays ; 

Now, from yon range of rocks, strong rays rebound, 

Doubling the day on flow’ry plains around. 

Savage. 

After the tent on the Summit was erected, Mark passed 
much of his . leisure time there. Thither he conveyed 
many of his books, of which he had a very respectable col- 
lection, his flute, and a portion of his writing materials. 
There he could sit and watch the growth of the different 
vegetables he was cultivating. As for Bob, he fished a 
good deal, both in the way of supplies and for his amuse- 
ment. The pigs and poultry fared well, and everything 
seemed to thrive but poof Kitty. She loved to follow 
Mark, and cast many a longing look up at the Summit, 
whenever she saw him strolling about among his plants. 

The vegetables on the Summit, or those first put into 
the ground, flourished surprisingly. Loam had been added 
repeatedly, and they wanted for nothing that could bring 
forward vegetation. The melons soon began to run, as 
did the cucumbers, squashes, and pumpkins ; and by the 
end of the next month, there were a dozen large patches 
on the mount that were covered by a dense verdure. Nor 
was this all ; Mark making a discovery about this time, 
that afforded him almost as much happiness as when he 
first saw his melons in leaf. He was seated one day, with 
the walls of his tent brailed up, in order to 'allow the wind 
to blow through, when something dark on the rock caught 
his eye. This spot was some little distance from him, and 
going to it, he found that large quantities of his grass-seed 
bad actually taken ! Now he might hope to convert that 


THE CRATER. 


109 


barren-looking, and often glaring rock, into a beautiful 
grassy hill, and render that which was sometimes painful 
to the eyes, a pleasure to look upon. The young man 
understood the laws of vegetation well enougli to be cer- 
tain that could the roots of grasses once insinuate them- 
selves into the almost invisible crevices of the crust that 
covered the place, they would of themselves let in light, 
air and water enough for their own wants, and thus in- 
crease the very fertility on wliich they subsisted. He did 
not fail, however, to aid nature, by scattering a fresh sup- 
ply of guano all over the hill. 

While Mark was thus employed at home. Bob rowed out 
to the Beef, bringing in his fish in such quantities that it 
occurred to Mark to convert them also into manure. A 
fresh half-acre was accordingly broken up, within the cra- 
ter, the cool of the mornings and of the evenings being 
taken for the toil ; and, as soon as a bed was picked over, 
quantities of fish were buried in it, and left there to decay. 
Nor did Betts neglect the sea- weed the while. On several 
occasions he floated large bodies of it in, from the outer 
reefs, which were all safely landed and wheeled into the 
crater, where a long pile of it was formed, mingled with 
loam from Loam Island, and guano. This work, however, 
gradually ceased, as the season advanced, and summer 
came in earnest. That season, however, did not prove by 
any means as formidable as Mark had anticipated, the sea- 
breezes keeping the place cool and refreshed. Our mari- 
ners now missed the rain, which was by no means as fre- 
quent as it had been, though it fell in larger quantities 
when it did come. The stock had to be watered for several 
weeks, the power of the sun causing all the water that 
lodged in the cavities of the rocks to evaporate almost im- 
mediately. 

During the time it was too warm to venture out in the 
dingui, except for half an hour of a morning, or for as long 
a period of an evening, Mark turned his attention to the 
ship again. Seizing suitable moments, each sail was 
loosened, thoroughly dried, unbent, and got below. An 
awning was got out, and spread, and the decks were wet 


no 


THE CRATER. 


down, morning and evening, both for the purposes oi 
cleanliness and to keep them from cheeking. The hold | 
was now entered, and overhauled, for the first time since 
the accident. A great many useful things were found in 
it, and among other articles two barrels of good sharp 
vinegar, which Friend Abraham ‘Wliite had caused to 
be put on board to be used with anything that could be 
pickled, as an anti-scorbutic. The onions and cucumbers 
both promising so well, Mark rejoiced at this discovery, 
determining at once to use some of the vinegar on a part 
of his expected crop of those two vegetables. 

One day as Bob was rummaging about in the hold, and 
Mark was looking on, that being the coolest place on the 
whole Reef, the former got hold of a piece of wood, and 
began to tug at it to draw it out from among a pile that lay 
in a dark corner. After several efforts, the stick came, 
when Mark, struck with a glimpse he got of its form, bade | 
Bob bring it under the light of the hatchway. The instant I 
he got a good look at it, Woolston knew that Bob’s “ fool- 
ish, crooked stick, which was fit to stow nowhere,” as the 
honest fellow had described it when it gave him so much 
trouble, was neither more nor less than one of the ribs of 
a boat of larger size than common. 

“ This is providential, truly ! ” exclaimed Mark. “ Your 
crooked stick. Bob, is a part of the frame of the pinnace 
of which you spoke, and which we had given up, as a thing 
not to be found on board ! ” 

“ You’re right, Mr. Mark, you’re right ! ” answered Bob, 

“ and I must have been oncommou stupid not to have 
thought of it, when it came so hard. And if there’s one 
of the boat’s bones stowed in that place, there must be 
more to be found in the same latitude.” 

This was true enough. After working in that dark 
corner of the hold for several hours, all the materials of 
the intended craft were found and collected in the steerage. 
Neither Mark nor Betts was a boat-builder, or a ship- 
wright ; but each had a certain amount of knowledge on 
the subject, and each well knew where every piece was 
intended to be put. What a revolution this discovery 


THE CRATER. 


Ill 


made in the feelings of . our young husband ! He had never 
totally despaired of seeing Bridget again, for that would 
scarce have comported with his youth and sanguine tem- 
perament ; but the hope liad, of late, become so very dim, 
as to survive only as that feeling will endure in tlm bosoms 
of the youthful and inexperienced. Mark had lived a long 
time for his years ; had seen more and performed far more 
than usually falls to persons of his age, and he was, by 
character, prudent and practical ; butNit would have been 
impossible for one who had lived as long and as well as 
himself, to give up every expectation of being restored to 
his bride, even in circumstances more discouraging than 
those in which he was actually placed. Still, he had been 
slowly accustoming himself to the idea of a protracted 
separation, and had never lost sight of the expediency of 
making his preparations for passing his entire life in the 
solitary place where he and Betts had been cast by a mys- 
terious and unexpected dispensation of a Divine Provi- 
dence. When Bob, from time to time, insisted on his 
account of the materials for the pinnace being in the ship, 
Mark had listened incredulously, unconscious himself how 
much his mind had been occupied by Bridget when thk- 
part of the cargo had been taken in, and unwilling to be- 
lieve such an acquisition could have been made without 
his knowledge. Now that he saw it, however, a tumultu- 
ous rushing of all the blood in his body towards his heart, 
almost overpowered him, and the future entirely changed 
its aspects. He did not doubt an instant, of the ability of 
Bob and himself to put tliese blessed materials together, or 
of their success^ in navigating the mild sea around them, 
for any necessary distance, in a craft of the size this must 
turn out to be. A bright vista, with Bridget’s brighter 
countenance at its termination, glowed before his imagina- 
tion, and a great deal of wholesome philosophy and Chris- 
tian submission were unsettled, as it might be, in the 
twinkling of an eye, by this all-important discovery. Mark 
had never abandoned the thought of constructing a little 
vessel with materials torn from the ship ; but that would 
have been a most laborious, as well as a doubtful experiment, 


112 


Tllf: CRATER. 


while here was the problem solved, with the certainty and j 
precision almost equal to one in mathematics ! i 

^The agitation and revulsion of feeling produced in Mark 
by the discovery of the materials of the pinnace, were so 
great as to prevent him from maturing any plan for several 
days. During that time he could perceive in himself an 
alteration that amounted almost to an entire change of 
character. The vines on the Summit were now in full 
leaf, and they covered broad patches of the rock with their 
luxuriant vegetation, while the grass could actually b^ seen 
from the ship, converting the drab-colored concretions 
of the mount into slopes and acclivities of verdure. But 
all this delighted him no longer. Home and Bridget met 
him even in the fanciful and now thriving beds within the 
crater, where everything appeared to push forward with a 
luxuriance and promise of return, far exceeding what had 
once been his fondest expectations. He could see nothing, 
anticipate nothing, talk of nothing, think of nothing, but 
these new-found means of quitting the Reef, and of return- 
ing to the abodes of men, and to the arms of his young 
wife. 

Betts took things more philosophically. He had made ! 
up his mind to “ Robinson Crusoe it ” a few years, and 
though he had often expressed a wish that the dingui was ’ 
of twice its actual size, he would have been quite as well 
content with this new boat could it be cut down to one 
fourth of its real dimensions. He submitted to Mark’s 
superior information, however ; and when the latter told 
him that he could wait no longer for the return of cooler 
weather, or for the heat of the sun to become less intense 
before he began to set up the frame of his craft, as had 
been the first intention. Bob acquiesced in the change of 
plan, without remonstrance, bent on taking things as they 
came, in humility and cheerfulness. 

Nevertheless, it was far easier bravely to determine in 
this matter, than to execute. The heat was now so intense, 
for the greater part of the day, that it would have far ex- 
ceeded the power of our two mariners to support it, on a 
naked rock, and without shade of any sort. The frame 


THE CRATER. 


113 


of the pinnace must be set up somewliere near the water, 
regular ways being necessary to launch her ; and nowhere, 
on the shoi’e, was the smallest shade to be found, without 
recourse to artificial means of procuring it. As JVlark’s 
impatience would no longer brook delay, this artificial shade, 
therefore, was the first thing to be attended to. 

The leeward end of the reef was chosen for the new 
sliip-yard. Although this choice imposed a good deal of 
additional labor on the two workmen, by compelling them 
to transport all the materials rather more than a mile, re- 
flection and examination induced Mark to select the spot he 
did. The formation of the rock was more favorable thei'e, 
he fancied, than in any other place he could find ; offering 
greater facilities for launching. This was one motive ; 
but the principal inducement was connected with an ap- 
prehensipn of floods. By the wall-like appearance of the 
exterior base of the mount, by the smoothness of the sur- 
face of the Reef in general, which, while it had many in- 
equalities, wore the appearance of being semi-polished by 
‘ the washing of water over it, and by the certain signs that 
were to be found on most of the lower half of the plain of 
the crater itself, Mark thought it apparent that the entire 
Reef, the crater excepted, had been often covered with the 
water of the ocean, and that at no very distant day. The 
winter months were usually the tempestuous months in 
that latitude, though hurricanes might at any time occur. 
Now, the winter was yet an untried experiment with our 
two “ reefers,” as Bob sometimes laugliingly called himself 
and Mark, and hurricanes were things that often raised 
the seas in their neighborhood several feet in an hour or 
two. Should the water be actually driven upon the Reef, 
so as to admit of a current to wash across it, or the waves 
to roll along its surface, the pinnace would be in the great- 
est danger of being carried off before it could be even 
launched. All these things Mark bore in mind, and he 
chose the spot he did, with an eye to these floods, alto- 
gether. It might be six or eight months before they could 
be ready to get the pinnace into the water, and it now 
wanted but six to the stormy season. At the western, or 


114 


THE CRATER. 


leeward, extremity of the island, the little craft would be 
under the lee of the crater, which would form a sort of 
breakwater, and might be the means of preventing it from 
being washed away. Then the rock, just at that spot, was 
three or four feet higher than at any other point, suffi- 
ciently near the sea to admit of launching with ease ; and the 
two advantages united, induced our young “ reefer ” to incur 
the labor of transporting the materials the distance named, 
in preference to foregoing them. The raft, however, w’as 
put in requisition, and the entire frame, with a few of the 
planks necessary for a commencement, was carried round 
at one load. 

Previously to laying the keel of the pinnace, Mark named 
It the Neshamony, after a creek that was nearly opposite 
to the Pancocus, another inlet of the Delaware, that had 
given its name to the ship from the circumstance that 
Friend Abraham White had oeen born on its low banks. 
The means of averting the pains and penalties of working 
in the sun, were also attended to, as indeed the great pre- 
liminary measure in this new enterprise. To this end the 
raft was again put in requisition ; an old main-course was 
got out of the sail-room, and lowered upon the raft ; spare 
spars were cut to the necessary length, and thrown into 
the water, to be towed down in company ; ropes, etc., were 
provided, and Bob sailed anew on this voyage. It was a 
work of a good deal of labor to get the raft to windward, 
towing having been resorted to as the easiest process, but 
a trip to leeward was soon made. In twenty minutes after 
this cargo had left the ship, it reached its point of destina- 
tion. 

The only time when our men could work at even their 
awning, were two hours early in the morning, and as many 
after the sun had got very low, or had absolutely set. Eight 
holes had to be drilled into the lava, to a depth of two feet 
each. Gunpowder, in very small quantities, was used, or 
these holes could not have been made in a twelve-month. 
But by drilling with a crowbar a foot or two into the rock, 
and charging the cavity with a very small portiop of pow- 
der, the lava was cracked, when the stones rather easily 


THE CRATER. 


115 


were raised by means of the picks and crows. Some idea 
may be formed of the amount of labor that was expended 
on this, the first step in the new task, by the circumstance 
that a month was passed in setting those eight awning-posts 
alone. When up, however, they perfectly answered the 
purpose, everything having been done in a thorough, sea- 
man-like manner. At the top of each post, itself a portion 
of solid spar, a watch-tackle was lashed, by means of which 
the sail was bowsed up to its place. To prevent the bag- 
ging unavoidable in an awning of that size, several up- 
rights were set in the centre, on end, answering their pur- 
pose sufficiently without boring into the rocks. 

Bob was in raptures with the new “ ship-yard.” It was 
as large as the mainsail of a ship of four hundred tons, 
was complete as to shade, with the advantage of letting the 
breeze circulate, and had a reasonable chance of escaping 
from the calamities of a flood. Mark, too, was satisfied 
with the result, and the very next day after his task was 
completed, our shipwrights set to work to lay their keel. 
That day was memorable on another account. Bob had 
gone to the Summit in quest of a tool left there, in fitting 
up the boat of Markj and while on the mount, he ascer- 
tained the im’l^ortant fact that the melons were beginning 
to ripen. He brought down three or four of these deli- 
cious fruits, and Mark had the gratification of tasting some 
of the bounties' of Providence, which had been bestowed, 
as a reward of his own industry and forethought. It was 
necessary to eat of these melons in moderation, however ; 
but it was a great relief to get them at all, after subsisting 
for so long a time on salted meats, principally, with no 
other vegetables but such* as were dry, and had been long 
in the ship. It was not the melons alone, however, that 
were getting to be ripe ; for, on examining himself, among 
the vines which now covered fully an acre of the Summit, 
Mark found squashes, cucumbers, onions, sweet-potatoes, 
tomatoes, string-beans, and two or three other vegetables, 
all equally fit to be used. From that time, some of these 
plants were put into the pot daily, and certain slight ap- 
prehensions which Woolston had begun again to entertain 


116 


THE CRATER. 


on the subject of scurvy, were soon dissipated. As for the 
garden within the crater, which was much the most exten- 
sive and artistical, it was somewhat behind that on the 
Summit, having been later tilled ; but everything there 
looked equally promising, and Mark saw that one acre, well 
worked, would produce more than he and Betts could con- 
sume in a twelve-month. 

It was an important day on the Reef when the keel of 
the pinnace was laid. On examining his materials, Mark 
ascertained that the boat-builders had mai’ked and num- 
bered each portion of the frame, each plank, and every- 
thing else that belonged to the pinnace. Holes were 
bored, and everything had been done in the boat-yard that 
could be useful to those who, it was expected, were to put 
the work together in a distant part of the world. This 
greatly facilitated our new boat-builders’ labors in the 
way of skill, besides having done so much of the actual 
toil to their hands. As soon as the keel was laid, Mark 
set up the frame, which came together with very little 
trouble. The wailes were then got out, and were fitted, 
each piece being bolted in its allotted place. As the work 
had already been put together, there was little or no dub- 
bing necessary. Aware that the parts had once been ac- 
curately fitted to each other, Mark was careful not to dis- 
turb their arrangement by an unnecessary use of the adze, 
or broad-axe, experimenting and altering the positions of 
the timbers and planks ; but, whenever he met with any 
obstacle, in preference to cutting and changing the mate- 
terials themselves, he persevered until the parts came to- 
gether as had been contemplated. By observing this cau- 
tion, the whole frame was set up, the w'ailes were fitted and 
bolted, and the garboard-streak got on and secured, without 
taking off a particle of the wood, though a week was nec- 
essary to effect the desired objects. 

Our mariners now measured their new frame. The keel 
was just four-and-twenty feet long, the distance between 
the knight-heads and the taffrail being six' feet greater; 
the beam, from outside to outside, was nine feet, and the 
hold might be computed at five feet in depth. This gave 


THE CRATER. 


117 


something like a measurement of eleveu tons ; the pinnace 
having been intended for a craft a trifle smaller than this. 
As a vessel of eleven tons might make very good weather 
in a sea-way, if properly handled, the result gave great 
satisfaction, Mark cheering Bob with accounts of crafts, of 
much smaller dimensions, that had navigated the more 
stormy seas, with entire safety, on various occasions. 

The planking of the Neshamony was no great matter, 
being completed the week it was commenced. The calk- 
ing, howevej’, gave more trouble, though Bob had done a 
good deal of that sort of work in his day. It took a fort- 
night for the honest fellow to do the calking to his own 
mind, and before it was finished another great discovery 
was made by rummaging in the ship’s hold, in quest of 
some of the fastenings which had not at first been found. 
A quantity of old sheet-copper, that had run its time on a 
vessel’s bottom, was brought to light, marked “ copper for 
the pinnace.” Friend Abraham White had bethouglit him 
of the worms of the low latitudes, and had sent out enough 
of the refuse copper of a vessel that liad been broken up 
to cover the bottom of this little craft fairly up to her 
bends, lo work, then, Mark and Bob went to put on the 
sheathing-paper and copper that had thus bountifully been 
provided for them, as soon as the seams were well payed. 
This done, and it was no great job, the paint-brush was set 
to work, and the hull was completed ! In all, Mark and 
Betts were eight weeks, hard at work, putting their pin- 
nace together. When she was painted, the summer was 
more than half gone The laying of the deck had given 
more trouble than any other portion of the work on the 
boat, and this because it was not a plain, full deck, or one 
that covered the whole of the vessel, but left small stern- 
sheets aft, which was absolutely necessary to the comfort 
and safety of those she was to carry. The whole was got 
together, however, leaving Mark and Bob to rejoice hi 
their success thus far, and to puzzle their heads about the 
means of getting their craft into the water, now she was 
built. In a word, it was far easier to put together a ves- 
sel of ten tons, that had been thus ready fitted to their 
hands, than it was to launch her. 


118 


THE CRATER. 


As each of our mariners liad necessarily seen many ves- 1 
sels in their cradles, each had some idea of what it was 
now necessary to do. Mark had laid the keel as near the | 
water as he could get it, and by tliis precaution had saved 
himself a good deal of labor. It was very easy to find 
materials for the ways, many heavy planks still remaining ; 
but the difficulty was to lay them so that they would not 
spread. Here the awning-posts were found of good serv- 
ice, plank being set on their edges against them, which, 
in their turn, were made to sustain the props of the ways. 
In order to save materials in the cradle, the ways them- 
selves were laid in blocks, and they were secured as well 
as the skill of our self-formed shipwrights could do it. 
They had some trouble in making the cradle, and had once 
to undo all they had done, in consequence of a mistake. 
At length Mark was of opinion they had taken all the 
necessary precautions, and told Betts that he thought they 
might venture to attempt launching the next day. But 
Bob made a suggestion which changetl this plan, and 
caused a delay that was attended with very serious conse- 
quences. 

The weather had become cloudy, and a little menacing, 
for the last few days, and Bob proposed that they should 
lower the awning, get up shears on the rock, and step the 
mast of the pinnace before they launched her, as a means 
of saving some labor. The spar was not very heavy, it 
was true, and it might be stepped by crossing a couple of j 
the oars in the boat itself ; but a couple of light spars — 
top-gallant studding-sail booms, for instance — would en- 
able them to do it much more readily, before the craft was 
put into the water, than it could be done afterwards. 
Mark listened to the suggestion, and acquiesced. The 
awning was consequently lowered, and got out of the way. i 
To prevent the hogs from tearing the sail, it was placed on 
two of the wheelbarrows and wheeled up into the crater, 
whither those animals had never yet found their way. 
Then the shears were got up, and the mast was stepped and 
rigged ; the boat’s sails were found and bent. Mark now 
thought enough had been done, and that, the next day, they 


THE CRATER. 119 

might undertake tlie launch. But another suggestion oi 
Bob’s delayed the proceedings. 

Tlie weather still continued clouded and menacing. 
Betts was of opinion, therefore, that it might be well to 
stow the provision and water they intended to use in the 
^pinnace, while she was on the stocks, as they could work 
round her so much the more easily then than afterwards. 
Accordingly, the breakers were got out, on board the ship, 
and filled with fresh water. They were then stuck into 
the raft. A barrel of beef, and one of pork followed, 
with a quantity of bread. At two trips the raft carried 
all the provisions and stores that were wanted, and the 
cargoes were landed, rolled up to the side of the pinnace, 
hoisted on board of her, by means of the throat-halyard, 
and properly stowed. Two grapnels, or rather one grap- 
nel, and a small kedge, were found among the pinnace’s 
materials, everything belonging to her having been stowed 
in the same part of the ship. These, too, were carried 
round to the ship-yard, got on board, and their hawsers 
^ bent. In a word, every preparation was made that might 
be necessary to make sail on the pinnace, and to proceed 
to sea in her at once. 

It was rather late in the afternoon of the" third clouded 
day, that Betts himself admitted no more could be done to 
the Neshamony, previously to putting her into the water. 
When our two mariners ceased the business of the day, 
therefore, it was with the understanding that they would 
^ turn out early in the morning, wedge up, and launch. An 
hour of daylight remaining, Mark went up to the Summit 
to select a few melons, and to take a look at the state of 
the plantations and gardens. Before ascending the hill, 
the young man walked through his garden in the crater, 
where everything was flourishing and doing well. Many 
of the vegetables were by this time fit to eat, and there 
, was every prospect of there being a sufficient quantity 
raised to meet the wants of two or three persons for a 
long period ahead. The sight of these fruits of his toil, 
and the luxuriance of the different plants, caused a mo- 
mentary feeling o"’ regret in Mark at the thought of being 


THE CRATER. 


^120 

about to quit tlie place forever. He even fancied lie 
should have a certain pleasure in returning to the Reef ; 
and once a faint outline of a plan came over his mind, in 
which he fancied that he might bring Bridget to this place, 
and pass the rest of his life with her, in the midst of its 
peace and tranquillity. This was but a passing thought,^ 
however, and was soon forgotten in the pictures that 
crowded on his mind, in connection with the great antici- 
pated event of the next day. 

While strolling about the little walks of his garden, the 
appearance of verdure along the edge of the crater, oi 
immediately beneath the cliff, caught Mark’s eye. Going 
hastily to the spot, he found that there was a long row of^ 
plants of a new sort, not only appearing above the ground, 
but already in leaf, and rising several inches in height. 
These were the results of the seeds of the oranges, lemons,] 
limes, shaddocks, figs, and other fruits of the tropics, that 
he had planted there as an experiment, and forgotten. 
While his mind was occupied with other things, these seeds 
had sent forth their shoots, and the several trees were'' 
growing with the rapidity and luxuriance that distinguish ' 
vegetation within the tropics. As Mark’s imagination pict- 
ured what might be the effects of cultivation and care on 
that singular spot, a sigh of regret mingled with his hopes ^ 
for the future, as he recollected he was so soon to aban-^ 
don the place forever ; while on the Summit, too, this feel- 
ing of regret was increased, rather than diminished. So < 
much of the grass seed had taken, and the roots had al- 
ready so far extended, that acres were beginning to look ^ 
verdant and smiling. Two or three months had brought 
everything forward prodigiously^, and the frequency of the 
rains in showers, added to the genial warmth of the sun, 
gave to vegetation a quickness and force that surprised, as , 
much as it delighted our young man. j 

That night Mark and Betts both slept in the ship. They | 
had a fancy it might be the last in which they could ever 
have any chance of doing so, and attachment to the vessel 
induced both to return to their old berths; for latterly 
they had slept in hammocks, swung beneath the ship-yard 


THE CRATER. 


121 


Rwuhig, in order to be near their work. Mark was awoke 
at a very early hour, by the howling of a gale among the 
rigging and spars of the Kancocus, sounds that he had not 
heard for many a day, and which, at first, were actually 
pleasant to his ears. Throwing on his clothes, and going 
r*out on the quarter-deck, he found that a tempest was upon 
them. The storm far exceeded anything that he had ever 
before witnessed in the Pacific. The ocean was violently 
amtated, and the rollers came in over the Reef, to wind- 
ward, with a force and majesty that seemed to disregard 
the presence of the rocks. It was just light, and Mark 
called Bob, in alarm. The aspect of things was really 
■^serious, and, at first, our mariners had great apprehensions 
for the safety of the ship. It was true, the sea-wall resiste<i 
every shock of the rollers that reached it, but even tlie 
billows after they were broked by this obstacle, came down 
upon the vessel with a violence that brought a powerful 
strain on every rope-yarn in the sheet-cable. Fortunately, 
the ground-tackle, on which the safety of the vessel 'de- 
' pended, was of the very best quality, and the anchor was 
known to have an excellent hold. Then, the preservation 
of the ship was no longer a motive of the first considera- 
tion with them ; that of the pinnace being the thing now 
most to be regarded. It might grieve them both to see 
' the Rancocus thrown upon the rocks, and broken up ; but 
of far greater account was it to their future prospects that 
the Neshamony should not be injured. Nor were the signs 
of the danger that menaced the boat to be disregarded. 
The water of the ocean appeared to be piling in among 
these reefs, the rocks of which resisted its passage to lee- 
ward, and already was washing up on the surface of the 
Reef, in places, threatening them with a general inunda- 
tion. It was necessary to look after the security of various 
articles that were scattered about on the outer plain, and 
our mariners went ashore to do so. 

Although intending so soon to abandon the Reef alto- 

o o 

gether, a sense of caution induced Mark to take every- 
thing be could within the crater. All the lower portions 
ef the outer plain were already covered with water, and 


122 


THE CRATER. 


those sagacious creatures, the hogs, showed by their snuf- 
fing and disturbed manner of running about, tliat'they liad 
internal as well as external warnings of danger. Mark 
pulled aside the curtain, and let all the animals into the 
crater. Poor Kitty was delighted to get on the Summit, 
whither she soon found her way, by ascending the steps ^ 
commonly used by her masters. Fortunately for the plants, 
the grass was in too great abundance, and too grateful to 
her, not to be her choice in preference to any other food. 
As for the pigs, they got at work in a pile of sea-weed, 
and overlooked the garden,-.which was at some distance, 
until fairly glutted, and ready to lie down. • , 

In the meanwhile the tempest increased in violence, the^ 
sea continued to pile among the rocks, and the water act- 
ually covered the whole of the outer plain of the Reef. 
Now it was that Mark comprehended how the base of thej 
crater had been worn by water, the waves washing past it 
with tremendous violence. There was actually a strong 
current running over the whole of the Reef, without tlie 
crater; the water rushing to leeward, as if glad to get past ^ 
the obstacle of the island on any tei’ms, in order to hasten 
away before the tempest. Mark was fully half an hour 
engaged in looking to his marquee and its contents, all of 
which were exposed, more or less, to the power or the 
gale. After securing his books, furniture, etc., and seeing ' 
that the stays of the marquee itself were likely to hold out, 
he cast an eye to the ship, which was on that side of the '' 
island, also. The staach old ’Cocus, as Bob called her, 
was rising and falling with the waves that now disturbed ^ 
her usually placid basin ; but, as yet, her cable and anchor 
held her, and no harm was done. Fortunately, our mari- 
ners, when they unbent the sails, had sent down all the ^ 
upper and lighter spars, and had lowered the fore and i 
main yards on the gunwale, measures of precaution that j 
greatly lessened the strain on her ground-tackle. The j 
top-gallant-masts had also been lowered, and the vessel 
was what seamen usually term “ snug.” Mark would have 
been very, very sorry to see her lost, even though he did 
expect to have very little more use out of her; for he 
loved the craft from habit. 


THE CRATER. 


123 


After taking this look at the ship, our mate passed round 
the Summit, having two or three tumbles on his way in 
consequence of puffs of wind, until he reached the point 
, over the gate-way, which was that nearest to the ship-yard. 
It now occurred to him that possibly it might become nec- 
/^essary to look a little to the security of the Neshamony, 
for by this time the water on the Reef was two or three feet 
deep. To his surprise, on looking round for Bob, whom 
I he thought to be at work securing property near the gate- 
way, he ascertained that the honest fellow had waded down 
to the ship-yard, and clambered on board the pinnace,' with 
, a view to take care of her. The distance between the 
^ point where Mark now stood and the Neshamony exceeded 
half a mile, and communication with the voice would have 
been next to impossible, had the wind not blown as it did. 
With the roaring of the seas, and the howling of the gale, 
it was of course entirely out of the question. Mark, how- 
ever, could see his friend, and see that he was gesticulating, 
in the most earnest manner, for himself to join him. Then 
it was he first perceived that the pinnace was in motion, 
seeming to move on her ways. Presently the blockings 
were washed from under her, and the boat went astern 
half her length at a single surge. Mark made a bound 
down the hill, intending to throw himself into the raging 
surf, and to swim off to the aid of Betts ; but, pausing an 
^.instant to choose a spot at which to get down the steep, he 
looked towards the ship-yard, and saw the pinnace lifted 
^ on a sea, and washed fairly clear of the land ! 


124 


THE GRATER. 


CHAPTER IX. 

Man’s rich with little, were his judgments true; 

Nature is frugal, and her wants are few; 

These few wants answered bring sincere delights, 

But fools create themselves new appetites. 

Young. 

It would have been madness in Mark to pursue his in- 
tention. A boat, or craft of any. sort, once adrift in such 
a gale, could not have been overtaken by even one of those 
islanders who are known to pass half their lives in the 
water ; and the young man sunk down on the rock, almost 
gasping for breath in the intensity of his distress. He felt 
more for Bob than he did for himself, for escape with life 
appeared to him to be a forlorn hope for his friend. 
Nevertheless, the sturdy old sea-dog who was cast adrift 
amid the raging of the elements, comported himself in a 
w'ay to do credit to his training. There was nothing like 
despair in his manner of proceeding ; but so coolly and 
intelligently did he set about taking care of his craft, that 
Mark soon found himself a curious and interested observer 
of all he did,- feeling quite as much of admiration for Bob’s 
steadiness and skill, as concern for his danger. 

Betts knew too well the uselessness of throwing over his 
kedge to attempt anchoring. Nor was it safe to keep the 
boat in the trough of the sea, his wisest course being to 
run before the gale until he was clear of the rocks, when 
he might endeavor to lie-to, if his craft would bear it. In i 
driving off the Reef the Neshamony had gone stern fore- 
most, almost as a matter of course, vessels usually being 
laid down with their bows towards the land. No sooner 
did the honest old salt find he was fairly 'ad rift, therefore, 
than he jumped into the stern-sheets and put the helm 
down. With stern-way on her, this caused the bows of 


THE CRATER. 


125 


the craft to fall off ; and, as she came broadside to the 
gale, Mark thought she would fall over, also. Some^idea 
could be formed of the power of the wind, in the fact that 
this sloop-rigged craft, without a rag of sail set, and with 
scarce any hamper aloft, no sooner caught the currents of 
air abeam, than she lay down to it, as one commonly sees 
such craft do under their canvas in stiff breezes. 

It was a proof that the Neshamony was well modeled, 
that she began to draw ahead as soon as the wind took her 
fairly on her broadside, when Betts shifted the helm, and 
the pinnace fell slowly off. When she had got nearly be- 
fore the wind, she came up and rolled to windward like a 
ship, and Mark scarce breathed as he saw her plunging 
down upon the reefs, like a frantic steed that knows not 
whither he is rushing in his terror. From the elevated 
position he occupied, Mark could see the ocean as far as 
the spray, which filled the atmosphere, would allow of any- 
thing being seen at all. Places which were usually white 
with the foam of breakers, could not now be distinguished 
from any of the raging caldron around them, and it was 
evident that Bob must run at hazard. Twenty times did 
Mark expect to see the pinnace disappear in the foaming 
waves, as it drove furiously onward ; but in each instance 
the light and buoyant boat came up from cavities where 
our young man fancied it must be dashed to pieces, scud- 
ding away to leeward like the sea-fowl that makes its flight 
with wings nearly dipping. Mark now began to hope 
that his friend might pass over the many reefs that lay in 
his track, and gain the open water to leeward. The rise 
in the ocean favored such an expectation, and no doubt 
was the reason why the Neshamony was not dashed to 
pieces within the first five minutes after she was washed 
off her ways. Once to leeward of the vast shoals that sur- 
rounded the crater, there was the probability of Bob’s 
finding smoother water, and the chance of his riding out 
the tempest by bringing his little sloop up head to sea. 
The water through which the boat was then running was 
more like a caldron, bubbling and boiling under some 
intense heat produced by subterranean fires, than the regu- 


126 


THE CRATER. 


lar, rolling billows of the ocean when piled up by gales. 
Under the lee of the shoals this caldron would disappear, 
while the mountain waves of the open ocean could not rise 
until a certain distance from the shallow water enabled 
them to ‘get up,’ as sailors express it. Mark saw the 
Neshamony for about a quarter of an hour after she was 
adrift, though long before the expiration of even that brief 
period she was invisible for many moments at a time, in 
consequence of the distance, her want of sail, her lowness 
in the water, and the troubled state of the element through 
which she was driving. The last look he got of her was 
at an instant when the spray was filling the atmosphere 
like a passing cloud ; when it had driven away, the boat 
could no longer be seen ! 

Here was a sudden and a most unexpected change for 
the worse in the situation of Mark Woolston ! Not only 
had he lost the means of getting off the island, but he had 
lost his friend and companion. It was true. Bob was a 
rough and an uncultivated associate ; but he was honest as 
human frailty could leave a human being, true as steel in 
his attachment, strong in body, and of great professional 
skill. So great, indeed, was the last, that our young man 
was not without the hope he would be able to keep under 
the lee of the shoals until the gale broke, and then beat up 
through them, and still come to his rescue. There was 
one point, in particular, on which Mark felt unusual con- 
cern. Bob knew nothing whatever of navigation. It was 
' impossible to teach him anything on that subject. He 
knew the points of the compass, but had no notion of the 
variations, of latitude, or longitude, or of anything belong- 
ing to the purely mathematical part of the business. Twenty 
times had he asked Mark to give him the latitude and 
longitude of the crater ; twenty times had he been told what 
they were, and just as often had he forgotten them. When 
questioned by his young friend, twenty-four hours after a 
lesson of this sort, if he remembered the figures at all, he 
was apt to give the latitude for the longitude, or the longi- 
tude for the latitude, the degrees for the minutes, or the 
minutes for the degrees. Ordinarily, however, he forgot 


THE CRATER. 


127 


all about the numbers themselves. Mark had in vain en- 
deavored to impress in his mind the single fact that any 
number which exceeded ninety must necessarily refer to 
longitude, and not to latitude ; for Bob could not be made 
to remember even this simple distinction. He was just as 
likely to believe the Reef lay in the hundred and twentieth 
degree of latitude, as he was to fancy it lay in the twen- 
tieth. With such a head, therefore, it was but little to be 
expected Bob could give the information to others neces- 
sary to find the Reef, even in the almost hopeless event of 
his ever being placed in circumstances to do so. Still, 
while so completely ignorant of mathematics and arithme- 
tic, in all their details, few mariners could find their way 
better than Bob Betts by the simple signs of the ocean 
He understood the compass perfectly, the variations ex- 
cepted ; and his eye was as true as that of the most expe- 
rienced artist could be, when it became necessary to- judge 
of the color of the water. On many occasions had Mark 
known him intimate that the ship was in a current, and 
had a weatherly or a lee set, when the fact had escaped not 
only the ofiicers, but the manufacturers of the charts. He 
judged by ripples, and sea-weed, and the other familiar 
signs of the seas, and these seldom failed him. While, 
therefore, there was not a seaman living less likely to find 
the Reef again, when driven off from its vicinity, by means 
of observation and the charts, there was not a seaman 
living more likely to find it, by resorting to the other helps 
of the navigator. On this last peculiarity Mark hung all 
bis hopes of seeing his friend again, when the gale should 
abate. 

Since the moment when all the charge of the ship fell 
upon his shoulders, by the loss of Captain Crutchely, Mark 
had never felt so desolate as when he lost sight of Bob and 
the Neshamony. Then, indeed, did he truly feel himself 
to be alone, with none between him and his God with 
whom to commune. It is not surprising, therefore, that 
one so much disposed to cherish his intercourse with the 
Divine Spirit, knelt on the naked rock and prayed. After 
this act of duty and devotion, the young man arrse, and 


128 


THE CEATER. 


endeavored to turn his attention to the stat^ of things 
around him. 

The gale still continued with unabated fury. Each in- 
stant the water rose higher and higher on the Reef, until 
it began to enter within the crater, by means of the gutters 
that had been worn in the lava, covering two or three 
acres of the lower part of its plain. As for the Rancocus, 
though occasionally pitching more heavily than our 3mung 
man could have believed possible behind the sea-wall, her 
anchor still held, and no harm had yet come to her. Find- 
ing it impossible to do any more, Mark descended into the 
crater, where it was a perfect lull, though the wind fairly 
howled on every side, and got into one of the South Amer- 
ican hammocks, of which there had been two or three in 
the ship, and of which he had caused one to be suspended 
beneath the sort of tent he and poor Bob had erected near 
the garden. Here Mark remained all the rest of that day, 
and during the whole of the succeeding night. But for 
what he had himself previously seen, the roar of the ocean 
on the other side of his rocky shelter, and the scuffling of 
the winds about the Summit, he might not have been made 
conscious of the violence of the tempest that was raging 
so near him. Once and awhile, however, a puff of air 
would j)ass over him ; but on the whole, he was little af- 
fected by the storm, until near morning, when it rained 
violently. Fortunately, Mark had taken the precaution to 
give a low ridge to all his awnings and tent-coverings, 
which turned the water perfectly. When, therefore, he 
heard the pattering of the drops on the canvas, he did not 
rise, but remained in his hammock until the day returned. 
Previously to that moment, however, he dropped into a 
deep sleep, in which he lay several hours. 

When consciousness returned to Mark, he lay half a 
minute trying to recall the past. Then he listened for the 
sounds of the tempest. All was still without, and, rising, 
found that the sun was shining, and that a perfect calm 
reigned in the outer world. Water was lying in spots, in 
lioles on the surface of the crater, where the pigs were 
drinking and the ducks were bathing. Kitty stood in sight, on 


THE CRATER. 


129 


the topmost kno9 of the Summit, cropping the young sweet 
grass that had so lately been refreshed by rain, disliking 
it none the less, pi-obably, from the circumstance that a 
few particles of salt were to be found among it, the deposit 
of the spray. The garden looked smiling, the plants re- 
freshed, and nothing as yet touched in it, by the visitors 
who had necessarily been introduced. 

Our young man washed himself in one of the pools, and 
then crossed the plain to drive out the pigs and poultry, 
the necessity of husbanding his stores pressing even pain- 
fully on his mind. As he approached the gate-way, he 
saw that the sea had retired ; and, certain that the animals 
would take care of themselves, he drove them through the 
hole and dropped the sail before it. Then he sought one 
of the ascents, and was soon on the top of the hill. The 
trades had returned, but scarce blew in zephyrs ; the sea 
was calm ; the points in the Reef were easily to be seen ; 
the ship was at rest and seemingly uninjured, and the 
whole view was one of the sweetest tranquillity and secu- 
rity. Already had the pent and piled waters diffused 
themselves, leaving the Reef as before, with the exception 
that those cavities which contained rain-water, during most 
of the year, now contained that which was not quite so 
palatable. This was a great temporary inconvenience, 
though the heavy showers of the past night had done a 
good deal towards sweetening the face of the rock, and 
had reduced most of the pools to a liquid that was brackish 
rather than salt. A great many fish lay scattered about 
on the island, and Mark hastened down to examine their 
qualities. 

The pigs and poultry were already at work on the game 
that was. so liberally thrown in their way, and Mark felt 
indebted to these scavengers for aiding him in what he 
perceived was now a task indispensable to his comfort. 
After going to the ship, and breaking his fast, he returned 
to the crater, obtained a wheelbarrow, and set to work in 
earnest to collect the fish^ which a very few hours* expos- 
ure to the sun of that climate would render so offensive 
as to make the island next to intolerable. Never in his 
9 


130 


THE CRATER. 


life did our young friend work harder than lie did all that 
morning. Each load of fish, as it was wheeled into the 
crater, was thrown into a trench already prepared for that 
purpose, and the ashes were hauled over it, by means of 
the hoe. Feeling the necessity of occupation to lessen his 
sorrow, as well as that of getting rid of pestilence, which 
he seriously apprehended from this inroad of animal sub- 
stances, Mark toiled two whole days at this work, until 
fairly driven from it by the intolerable effluvium which 
arose, notwithstanding all he had done, on every side of 
the island. It is impossible to say what would have been 
the consequences had not the birds come, in thousands, to 
his relief. They made quick work of it, clearing off the 
fish in numbers that would be nearly incredible. As it 
was, however, our young hermit was driven into the. ship, 
where he passed a whole week, the steadiness of the trades 
driving the disagreeable odors to leeward. At the end 
of that time he ventured ashore, where he found it possible 
to remain, though the Reef did not get purified for more 
than a month. Finding a great many fish still remaining 
that neither hog nor bird would touch, Mark made a couple 
of voyages to Loam Island, whence he brought two car- 
goes of the deposit, and landed at the usual place. This 
he wheeled about the Reef, throwing two or three 
shovels full on each offensive creature, thus getting rid of 
the effluvium and preparing a considerable store of ex- 
cellent manure for his future husbandry. It may be as' 
well said here, that, at odd times, he threw these little 
deposits into large heaps, and subsequently wheeled them 
into the crater, where they were mixed with the prin- 
cipal pile of comi 30 St that had now been, for mouths, col- 
.ecting there. . ^ 

It is a proof of the waywardness of human nature that 
we bear great misfortunes better than small ones. So it 
proved with Mark, on this occasion ; for much as he really 
regarded Bob, and serious as was the loss of his friend to 
himself, the effects of the inundation occupied his thoughts, 
and disturbed him more, just at that time, than the dis- 
appearance of the Neshamony. Nevertheless, our young 


. THE CRATER. 


131 


man had not forgotten to look out for the missing boat, 
in readiness to hail its return with joy. He passed much 
of the week he was shut up in the ship in her topmast- 
cross-trees, vainly examining the sea to leeward, in the hope 
of catching a distant view of the pinnace endeavoring to 
bear up through the reefs. Several times he actually fan- 
cied he saw her ; but it always turned out to be the wing 
of some gull, or the cap of a distant breaker. It was 
when Mark had come ashore again, and commenced the 
toil of covering the decayed fish, and of gathering them 
into piles, that these smaller matters supplanted the deep 
griefs of his solitude. ' 

One of the annoyances to which our solitary man found 
himself most subject, was the glare produced by a burning 
sun on rocks and ashes of the drab color of the crater. 
The spots of verdure that he had succeeded in producing 
on the Summit, not only relieved and refreshed his eyes, 
but they w’^ere truly delightful as aids to the view, as well 
as grateful to Kitty, which poor creature had, by this time, 
cropped them down to a pretty short herbage. This Mark 
knew, however, was an advantage to tlie grass, making it 
finer, and causing it to thicken at the roots. The success 
of this experiment, the annoyance to his eyes, and a fever- 
ish desire to be doing, which succeeded the disappearance 
of Betts, set Mark upon the project of sowing grass seed 
over as much of the plain of the crater as he thought he 
should not have occasion to use for the purposes of tillage. 
To work he went then, scattering the seed in as much pro- 
fusion as the quantity to be found in the ship would jus- 
tify. Friend Abraham White had provided two barrels of 
the seed, and this went a good way. While thus em- 
ployed a heavy shower fell, and thinking the rain a most 
favorable time to commit his grass seeds to the earth, 
M“ark worked through the whole of it, or for several hours, 
perspiring with the warmth and exercise. 

This done, a look at the garden, with a free use of the 
hoe, was the next thing undertaken. That night Mark 
slept in his hammock, under the crater-awning, and when 
he awoke in the morning it was to experience a weight 


132 


THE CRAiER. 


like that of lead in his forehead, a raging thirst, and a f.i 
burning fever.- Now it was that our poor solitary hermit 
felt the magnitude of his imprudence and the weight of | 
the evils of his peculiar situation. That he was about to j 
be seriously ill he knew, and it behooved him to improve I 
the time that remained to him, to the utmost. Everything 
useful to him was in the ship, and thither it became indis- 
pensable for him to repair, if he wished to retain even a 
chance for life. Opening an umbrella, then, and support- 
ing his tottering legs by a cane, Mark commenced a walk 
of very near a mile, under an almost perpendicular sun, 
at the hottest season of the year. Twenty times did the 
young man tliink he should be compelled to sink on the 
bare rock, where there is little question he would soon 
have expired, under the united influence of the fever 
within and the burning heat without. Despair urged him 
on, and after pausing often to rest, he succeeded in entering 
the cabin, at the end of the most perilous hour he had ever 
yet passed. 

No words of ours can describe the grateful sense of cool- 
ness, in spite of the boiling blood in his veins, that Mark 
Woolston experienced when he stepped beneath the shade 
of the poop-deck of the Rancocus. The young man knew 
that he was about to be seriously ill, and his life might de- 
pend on the use he made of the next hour, or half hour, 
even. He threw himself on a settee, to get a little rest, 
and while there he endeavored to reflect on his situation, 
and to remember what he ought to do. The medicine- 
chest always stood in the cabin, and he had used its con- 
tents too often among the crew, not to have some knowl- 
edge of their general nature and uses. Potions were kept 
prepared in that depository, and he staggered to the table, 
opened the chest, took a ready-mixed dose of the sort he 
believed best for him, poured water on it from the filterer, 
and swallowed it. Our mate ever afterwards believed 
that draught saved his life. It soon made him deadly sick, 
and produced an action in his whole system. For an hour 
he was under its influence, when he was enabled to get 
into his berth, exhausted and literally unable any longer 


THE CRATER. 


133 


to stand. How long he remained it that berth, or near 
it rather — for he was conscious of having crawled from 
it in quest of water, and for other purposes, on several oc- 
casions — but, how long he was confined to his cabin, Mark 
Woolston never knew. The period was certainly to be 
measured by days, and he sometimes fancied by weeks. 
The first probably was the truth, though it might have been 
a fortnight. Most of that time his head was liorfit with 

^ O 

fever, though there were intervals when reason was, at 
least partially restored to him, and he became painfully 
conscious of the horrors of his situation. Of food and 
water he had a sufficiency, the filterer and a bread-bag be- 
ing quite near him, and he helped himself often from the 
first, in particular ; a single mouthful of the ship’s biscuit 
commonly proving more than he could swallow, even after 
it was softened in the water. At length he found himself 
indisposed to rise at all, and he certainly remained eight- 
and-forty hours in his berth, without quitting it, and almost 
without sleeping, though most of the time in a sort of 
doze. 

At length the fever abated in its violence, though it 
began to assume, what for a man in Mark Woolston’s situ- 
ation was perhaps more dangerous, a character of a low 
type, lingering in his system and killing him by inches. 
Mark was aware of his condition, and thought of the means 
of relief. The ship had some good Philadelphia porter in 
her, and a bottle of it stood on a shelf over his berth. This 
object caught his eye, and he actually longed for a draught 
of that porter. He had sufficient strength to raise himself 
high enough to reach it, but it far exceeded his powers to 
draw the cork, even had the ordinary means been at hand, 
which they were not. There was a hammer on the shelf, 
however, and with that instrument he did succeed in making 
a hole in the side of the bottle, and in filling a tumbler. 
This liquor he swallowed at a gingle draught. It tasted 
deliciously to him, and he took a second tumblerful, when 
ne lay down, uncertain as to the consequences. That his 
head was affected by these two glasses of porter, Mark 
himself was soon aware, and shortly after drowsiness fol 


134 


THE CEATER. 


lowed. After lying in an uneasy slumber for half an hour, 
his whole person was covered with a gentle perspiration, I) 
in which condition, after drawing the sheet around him, i 
the sick man fell asleep. t 

Our patient never knew how long he slept, on this all- l| 
important occasion. The period certainly included part i 
of two days and one entire night ; but afterwards, when I 
Mark endeavored to correct his calendar, and to regain I 
something like a record of the time, he was inclined to 
think he must have lain there two nights with the inter- 
vening day. When he awoke, Mark was immediately 
sensible that he was free from disease. He was not im- 
mediately sensible, nevertheless, how extremely feeble dis- 
ease had left him. At first, he fancied he had only to rise, 
take nourishment, and go about his ordinary pursuits. But 
the sight of his emaciated limbs, and the first effort he made 
to get up, convinced him that he had a long state of pro- 
bation to go through, before he became the man he had 
been a week or two before. It was well, perhaps, that his i 
head was so clear, and his judgment so un obscured at this, ! 
his first return to consciousness. 

Mark deemed it a good symptom that he felt disposed 
to eat. How many days he had been altogether without 
nourishment he could not say, but they must have been 
several ; nor had he received more than could be obtained 
from a single ship’s biscuit since his attack. All this came 
to his mind, with a distinct recollection that he must be his 
own physician and nurse. For a few minutes he lay still, 
during which he addressed himself to God, with thanks 
for having spared his life until reason was restored. Then 
he bethought him, well as his feeble state would allow, of 
the course he ought to pursue. On a table in the cabin, 
and in sight of his berth, through the state-room door, was 
a liquor case, containing wines, brandy, and gin. Our sick 
man thought all might j^et go well, could he get a few 
spoonfuls of an excellent port wine which that case con- 
tained, and which had been provided expressly for cases of 
sickness. To do this, however, it was necessary to obtain 
the key, to open the case, and to pour out the liquor ; three 


THE CRATER. 135 

things, of which he distrusted his powers to perform tliat 
which was the least difficult. ‘ 

The key of the liquor-case was in the drawer of an open 
secretary, which fortunately, stood between him and the 
table. Another effort was made to rise, which so far suc- 
ceeded as to enable the invalid to sit up in his bed. The 
cool breeze which aired the cabin revived him a little, and 
he was able to stretch out a hand and turn the cock of the 
filterer, which he had himself drawn near his berth, while 
under the excitement of fever, in order to obtain easy ac- 
cess to water. Accidentally this filterer stood in a draught, 
and the quart or two of water that had not yet evaporated 
was cool and palatable ; that is, cool for a ship and such 
a climate. One swallow of the water was all Mark ven- 
tured on, but it revived him more than he could believe 
possible. Near the glass into which he had drawn the 
water, lay a small piece of pilot bread, and this he dropped 
into the tumbler. Then he ventured to try his feet, when 
he found a dizziness come over him, that', compelled him to 
fall back on his berth. Recovering from this in a minute 
or two, a second attempt succeeded better, and the poor 
fellow, by supporting himself against the bulkheads, and 
by leaning on chairs, was enabled to reach the desk. The 
key was easily obtained, and the table was next reached. 
Here Mark sunk into a' chair, as much exhausted as he 
would have been, previously to his illness, by a desperate 
effort to defend life. ^ 

The invalid was in his shirt, and the cool sea-breeze had 
the effect of an air-bath on him. It revived him in a little 
while, when he applied the key, opened the case, got out 
the bottle by using b6th hands, though it was nearly empty, 
and poured out a Wine-glass of the liquor. With these 
little exertions he was so much exhausted as almost to 
faint. Nothing saved him, probably, but a sip of the 
wine whicli^he took from the glass as it stood on the table. 
It has been much the fashion, of late years, to decry wine, 
and this because it is a gift of Providence that has been 
greatly abused. In Mark Woolston’s instance it proved, 
what it was designed to be, a blessing instead of a curse 


136 


THE CRATER. 


That single sip of wine produced an effect on him like that 
of magic. It enabled him soon to obtain his tumbler of 
water, into which he poured the remainder of the liquor. 
With the tumbler in his hand, the invalid next essayed to 
cross the cabin, and to reach the berth in the other state- 
room. He was two or three minutes in making this pas- 
sage, sustained by a chair, into which he sunk not less than 
three times, and revived by a few more sips of the wine 
and water. In this state-room was a bed with clean cool 
linen, that had been prepared for Bob, but which that 
worthy fellow had pertinaciously refused to use, out of 
respect to his officer. On these sheets Mark now sank, 
almost exhausted. He had made a happy exchange, how- 
ever, the freshness and sweetness of the new bed, of itself, 
acting as delicious restoratives. 

After resting a few minutes, the solitary invalid formed 
a new plan of proceeding. He knew the importance of 
not over-exerting himself, but he also knew the importance 
of cleanliness and of a renovation of his strength. By this 
time the biscuit had got to be softened in the wine and 
water and he took a piece, and after masticating it well, 
swallowed it. This was positively the first food the sick 
and desolate young man had received in a week. Fully 
aware of this, he abstained from taking a second mouthful, 
though sorely pressed to it by hunger. So strong was the 
temptatit)n, and so sweet did that morsel taste, that Mark 
felt he might not refrain unless he had something to occupy 
his mind for a few minutes. Taking a small swallow of 
the wine and water, he again got on his feet, and staggered 
to the drawer in which poor Captain Crutchely had kept 
his linen. Here he got a shirt, and tottered on as far as 
the quarter-deck. Beneath the awning Mark had kept the 
section of a hogshead, as a bathing-tub, and for the pur- 
})Ose of catching the rain-water that ran from the awning, 
Kitty often visiting the ship and drinking fiT)m this res- 
ervoir. 

The invalid found the tub full of fresh and sweet water, 
and throwing aside the shirt in which he had lain so long, 
he rather fell than seated himself in the water. After re* 


/ 


THE CRATER. 


137 


maining a sufficient time to recover his breath, Mark 
washed his head, and ffing matted beard, and all parts of 
his frame, as well' as his strength would allow. He must 
have remained in the water several minutes, when he man- 
aged to tear himself from it, as fearful of excess from this 
indulgence as from eating. The invalid now felt like a 
new man ! It is scarcely possible to express the change 
that came over his feelings, when he found himself purified 
from the effects of so long a confinement in a feverish bed, 
without change, or nursing of any sort. After drying him- 
self as well as he could with a towel, though the breeze 
and the climate did that office for him pretty effectually, 
Mark put on the clean, fresh shirt, and tottered back to 
his own berth, where he fell on the mattress, nearly ex- 
hausted. It was half an hour before he moved again, 
though all that time experiencing the benefits of the nour- 
ishment taken, and the purification undergone. The bath, 
moreover, had acted as a tonic, giving a stimulus to the 
whole system. At the end of the half hour, the young 
man took another mouthful of the biscuit, half emptied the 
tumbler, fell back on his pillow, and was soon in a sweet 
sleep. 

It was near sunset when Mark lost his consciousness on 
this occasion, nor did he recover it until the light of day 
was once more cheering the cabin. He had slept pro- 
foundly twelve hours, and this so much the more readily 
from the circumstance that he had previously refreshed 
himself with a bath and clean linen. The first conscious- 
ness of his situation was accompanied with the bleat of poor 
Kitty. That gentle animal, intended by nature to mix 
with herds, had visited the cabin daily, and had been at 
the sick man’s side, when his fever was at its height ; and 
had now come again, as if to inquire after his night’s rest. 
Mark held out his hand, and spoke to his companion, for 
such she was, and thought she was rejoiced to hear his 
voice again, and to be allowed to lick his hand. There 
was great consolation in this mute intercourse, poor Mark 
feeling the want of sympathy so much as to find a deep 
pleasure in this proof of affection even in a brute. 


138 


THE CRATER. 


Mark now arose, and found himself sensibly improved] 
by his night’s rest, the washing, and the nourishment re-| 
ceived, little as the last had been. I Its first step was to I' 
empty the tumbler, bread and all. Then he took another | 
bath, the last doing quite as much good, he fancied, as his; 
breakfast. All that day, the young man managed his case 
with the same self-denial and prudence, consuming a ship’s 
biscuit in the course of the next twenty-four hours, and 
taking two or three glasses of the wine, mixed with water, 
and sweetened with sugar. In the afternoon he endeav- 
ored to shave, but the first effort convinced him he was j 
getting well too fast. i 

It was thrice twenty-four hours after his first bath, be- 
fore Mark Woolston had sufficient strength to reach the 
galley and light a fire. In this he then succeeded, and he 
treated himself to a cup of good warm tea. He concocted 
some dishes of arrow-root and cocoa, too, in the course of 
that and the next day, continuing his baths, and changing 
his linen repeatedly. On the fifth day he got off his beard, 
which was a vast relief to him, and by the end of the week 
he actually crawled up on the poop, where he could get a 
sight of his domains. 

The Summit was fast getting to be really green in con- 
siderable patches, for the whole rock was now covered 
with grass. Kitty was feeding quietly enough on the hill- 
side, the gentle creature having learned to pass the curtain 
at the gate, and go up and down the ascents at pleasure. 
Mark scarce dared to look for his hogs, but there they 
were rooting and grunting about the Reef, actually fat and 
contented. He knew that this foreboded evil to his garden, 
for the creatures'must have died for want of food during 
his illness, had not some such relief been found. As yet, 
his strength would not allow him to go ashore, and he was 
obliged to content himself with this distant view of. his 
estate. The poultry appeared to be well, and the invalid 
fancied he saw chickens running at the side of one of the 
hens. 

It was a week later before Mark ventured to go as far 
as the crater. On entering it, he found that his conject- 


THE CRATER. 


139 


ures concerning the garden were true. Two thirds of it 
had been dug over by the snouts of his pigs, quite as ef- 
fectually as he could have done it, in his vigor, with tlie 
spade. Tops and roots had been demolished alike, and 
about as much wasted as had been consumed. Kitty was 
foiTnd, Jlagrante delictu, nibbling at the beans, which, by 
this time, were dead ripe. The pease, and beans, and In- 
dian corn had made good picking for the poultry ; and 
everything possessing life had actually been living in abun- 
dance, while the sick man had lain unconscious of even his 
own existence, in a state as near death as life. 

Mark found his awning standing, and was glad to rest 
an hour or two in his hammock, after looking at the gar- 
den. While there the hogs entered the crater, and made 
a meal before his eyes. To his surprise, the sow was fol- 
lowed by ten little creatures, that were already getting to 
be of the proper size for eating. A ravenous appetite was 
now Mark’s greatest torment, and the coarse foqd of the 
ship was rather too heavy for him. He had exhausted his 
wit in contriving dishes of flour, and pined for something 
more grateful than salted beef or pork. Although he 
somewhat distrusted his strength, yet longing induced him 
to make an experiment. A fowling-piece, loaded with 
ball, was under the awning ; and freshening the priming, 
the young man watched his opportunity when one of the 
grunters was in a good position, and shot it in the head. 
Then cutting its throat with a knife, he allowed it to bleed, 
when he cleaned, and shinned it. This last operation was 
not very artistical, but it was necessary in the situation of 
our invalid. With the carcass of this pig, which was quite 
as much as he could even then carry back to the ship, 
though the animal was not yet six weeks old, Mark made 
certain savory and nourishing dishes, that contributed 
essentially to the restoration of his strength. In the course 
of the ensuing month three more of the pigs shared the 
same fate, as did half a dozen of the brood of chickens 
already mentioned, though the last were not yet half-grown. 
But Mark felt, now, as if he could eat the crater, though 
as yet he had not been able to clamber to the 'Summit. 


THE CRATER. 


CHAPTER X. 

Yea! long as nature’s humblest child 
Hath kept her temple undefiled 
By sinful sacrifice, 

Earth’s fairest scenes are all his own, 

He is a monarch, and his throne 
, Is built amid the skies. 

Wilson. 

Our youthful hermit was quite two months in regaining 
his strength, though, by tlie end of one he was able to look 
about him, and turn his hand to many little necessary jobs. 
The first thing he undertook wafs to set up a gate that 
would keep the animals on the outside of the crater. The 
pigs had not only consu^ied much the largest portion of 
his garden truck, but they had taken a fancy to break up 
the crust of that part of the crater where the grass was 
showing itself, and to this inroad upon his meadows, Mark 
had no disposition to submit. He had now ascertained 
that the surface of the plain, though of a rocky appearance, 
was so far shelly and porous that the seeds had taken very 
generally ; and as soon as their roots worked their way 
into the minute crevices, he felt certain they would of 
themselves convert the whole surface into a soil sufficiently 
rich to nourish the plants he wished to produce there. 
Under such circumstances he did not desire the assistance 
of the hogs. As yet, however, the animals had done good 
rather than harm to the garden, by stirring the soil up, 
and mixing the sea-weed and decayed fish with it ; but 
among the grass they threatened to be more destructive 
than useful. In most places the crust of the plain was just 
thick enough to bear the weight of a man, and Mark, no 
pologist, by the way, came to the conclusion that it ex- 
isted at all more through the agency of the salt deposited 
in ancient floods, than from any other cause. According 


140 


THE CRATER. 


141 


to the great general law of the earth, soil should have been 
formed from rocl£, and not rock from soil ; though there 
certainly are cases in which the earths indurate, as well 
as become disintegrated. As we are not professing to give 
a scientific account of these matters, we shall simply state 
the facts, leaving better scholars than ourselves to account 
for their existence. 

Mark made his gate out of the fife-rail, at the foot of 
the mainmast, sawing off the stanchions for that purpose. 
AVith a little alteration it answered perfectly, being made 
to swing from a post that was wedged into the arch, by 
cutting it to the proper length. As this was the first at- 
tack upon the Rancocus that had yet been made, by axe 
or saw, it made the young man melancholy ; and it was 
only with great reluctance that he could prevail on himself-^ 
to begin what appeared like the commencement of breaking 
up the good craft. It was done, however, 'and the gate 
was hung ; thereby saving the rest of the crop. It was 
high time ; the hogs and poultry, to say nothing of Kitty, 
having already got their full share. The inroads of the 
first, however, were of use in more ways than one, since 
they taught our young cultivator a process by which he 
could get his garden turned up at a cheap rate. They 
also suggested to him an idea that he subsequently, turned 
to good account. Having dug his roots so early, it oc- 
curred to Mark that, in so low a climate, and with such a 
store of manure, he might raise two crops in a year, those 
which came in the cooler months varying a little in their 
properties from those which came in the warmer. On this 
hint he endeavored to improve, commencing anew beds that, 
without it, would probably have lain fallow some months 
onger. 

In this way did our young man employ himself until he 
found his strength perfectly restored. But the severe ill- 
ness he had gone through, with the sad views it had given 
him of some future day, when he might be compelled to 
give up life itself, without a friendly hand to smooth his 
pillow, or to close his eyes, led him to think far more se- 


142 THE CRATER. 

character of our probationary condition here on earth, and i 
on the unknown and awful future to which it leads us. ' 
Mark had been carefully educated on the subject of relig- 
ion, and was well enough disposed to enter into the in- 
quiry in a suitable state_ of humility ; but the grave cir- 
cumstances in which he was now placed, contributed 
largely to the clearness of his views of the necessity of I 
preparing for the final change. Cut off, as he was, from | 
all communion with his kind, cast on what was, when he 
first knew it, literally a barren rock in the midst of the 
vast Pacific Ocean, Mark found himself, by a very natural 
operation of causes, in much closer communion with his 
Creator than he might have been in the haunts of the 
world. On the Reef, there was little to divert his thoughts 
.from their true course ; and the very ills that pressed upon 
him, became so many guides to his gratitude by showing, 
through the contrasts, the many blessings which had been 
left him by the mercy of the hand that had struck him. 
The nights in that climate and season were much the 
pleasantest portions of the four-and-twenty hours. There 
were no exhalations from decayed vegetable substances or 
stagnant pools, to create miasma, but the air was as pure 
and little to be feared under a placid moon as under a 
noon-day sun. The first hours of night, therefore, were 
those in which our solitary man chose to take most of his- 
exercise, previously to his complete restoration to strength ; 
and then it was that he naturally fell into an obvious and 
healthful communion with the stars. 

So far as the human mind has as yet been able to pene- 
trate the mysteries of our condition here on earth, with 
the double connection between the past and the future, all 
its just inferences tend to the belief in an existence of a 
vast and beneficent design. We have somewhere heard, or 
read, that the gypsies believe that men are the fallen angels, 
toiling their way backward on the fatal path along which 
they formerly rushed to perdition. This may not be, pro- 
bably is not . true in its special detail ; but that men are 
placed here to prepare themselves for a future and higher 
condition of existence, is not only agreeable to our con* 


THE CRATER. 


143 


Bciousness, but is in liarmony with revelation. Among the 
many things that have been revealed to ns, where so many 
are hid, we are told that our information is to increase, as 
we diaw nearer to the millennium, until, “ The whole earth 
shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the 
waters cover the sea.” We may "be far from that blessed 
day ; probably are ; but he has lived in vain, who has dwelt 
his half century in the midst of the civilization of this our 
own age, and does not see around him the thousand proofs 
of the tendency of things to the fulfillment of the decrees, 
announced to us ages ago by the pens of holy men. Rome, 
Greece, Egypt, and all that we know of the past, which 
comes purely of man and his passions ; empires, dynasties, 
heresies, and novelties, come and go like the changes of 
the seasons ; while the only thing that can be termed stable, 
is the slow but sure progress of prophecy. The agencies 
that have been employed to bring about ' the great ends 
foretold so many centuries since, are so very natural, that 
we often lose sight of the mighty truth in its seeming sim- 
plicity. But, the signs of the times are not to be mistaken. 
Let any man of fifty, for instance, turn his eyes toward the 
East, the land of Judea, and compare its condition, its 
promises of to-day, with those that existed in his own 
youth, and ask himself how the change has been produced. 
That which the Richards and St. Louises of the Middle Ages 
could not effect with their armed hosts, is about to happen 
as a consequence of causes so obvious and simple that they 
are actually overlooked by the multitude. The Ottoman 
power and Ottoman prejudices are melting away, as it 
might be under the heat of divine truth, which is clearing 
for itself a path that will lead to the fulfillment of its own 
predictions. 

Among the agents that are to be employed, in impress- 
ing the human race with a sense of the power and benevo- 
lence of the Deity, we think the science of astronomy, 
with its mechanical auxiliaries, is to act its full share. 
The more deeply we penetrate into the arcana of nature, 
the stronger becomes the proofs of design ; and a deity 
thus obviously, tangibly admitted, the more profound will 


144 


THE CRATER. 


become the reverence of his character and power. Tn 
Mark Woolston’s youth, the great progress which has since 
been made in astronomy, more especially in the way of its 
details through observations, liad but just commenced. A 
vast deal, it is true, had been accomplished in the way of 
pure science, though but little that came home to the un- 
derstandinojs and feelings of the mass. Mark’s education 
had given him an outline of what Herschel and his contem- 
poraries had been about, however ; and when he sat on the 
Summit, communing with the stars, and through those 
distant and still unknown worlds, with their Divine First 
Cause, it was with as much familiarity with the subject as 
usually belongs to the liberally educated, without carrying 
a particular branch of learning into its recesses. He had 
increased his school acquisitions a little, by the study and 
practice of Navigation, and had several works that he was 
fond of reading, which may have made him a somewhat 
more accurate astronomer than those who get only leading 
ideas on the subject. Hours at a time did Mark linger on 
the vSummit, studying the stars in the clear, transparent 
atmosphere of the tropics, his spirit struggling the while 
to get into closer communion with that dread Being which 
had produced all these mighty results ; among which the 
existence of the earth, its revolutions, its heats and colds, 
its misery and happiness, are but specks in the incidents 
of a universe. Previously to this period, he had looked 
into these things from curiosity and a love of science ; 
now they impressed him with the deepest sense of the 
power and wisdom of the Deity, and caused him the better 
to understand his own position in the scale of created 
beings. 

Not only did our young hermit study the stars with his 
own eyes, but he had the aid of instruments. The ship 
had two very good spy -glasses, and Mark himself was the 
owner of a very neat reflecting telescope, which he had 
purchased with his wages, and had brought with him as a 
source of amusement and instruction. To this telescope 
there was a brass stand, and he conveyed it to the tent on 
the Summit, where it was kept for use. Aided by this 


THE CRATER. 


145 


instrument, Mark could see the satellites of Jupiter and 
Saturn, the ring of the latter, the belts of the former, and 
many of the phenomena of the moon. Of course, the 
spherical forms of all the nearer planets, then known to 
astronomers, were plainly to be seen by the assistance of 
; this instrument ; and there is no one familiar fact connected 
with our observations of the heavenly bodies, that strikes 
the human mind, through the senses, as forcibly as this. 
For near a month, Mark almost passed the nights gazing 
at the stars, and reflecting on their origin and uses. He 
liad no expectations of making discoveries, or of even add- 
ing to his own stores of knowledge ; but his thoughts were 
brought nearer to his Divine Creator by investigations of 
this sort ; for where a zealous mathematician might have 
merely exulted in the confirmation of some theory by means 
of a fact, he saw the hand of God instead of the solution 
of a problem. Thrice happy would it be for the man of 
science, could he ever thus hold his powers in subjection to 
the great object for which they were brought into existence ; 
and, instead of exulting in, and quarreling about the pride 
of human reason, be brought to humble himself and his 
utmost learning, at the feet of Infinite Knowledge, and 
DOwer, and wisdom, as they are thus to be traced in the 
^'ath of the Ancient of Days ! 

By the time his strength returned, Mark had given up, 
altogether, the hope of ever seeing Betts again. It was 
just possible that the poor fellow might fall in with a ship, 
or find his way to some of the islands ; but, if he did so, 
it would be the result of chance and not of calculations. 
The pinnace was well provisioned, had plenty of water, 
and, tempests excepted, was quite equal to navigating the 
Pacific ; and there was a faint hope that Bob might con- 
tinue his course to the eastward, with a certainty of reach- 
ing some part of South America in time. If he should 
take this course, and succeed, what would be the conse- 
quence ? Who would put suiricient faith in the story of a 
simple seaman, like Robert Betts, and send a ship to look 
for Mark Woolston ? In these later times, the government 
would doubtless dispatch a vessel of war on such an errand, 
10 


146 


THE CEATER. ' 


did no other means of rescuing the man offer ; but, at tho 
close of the last century, government did not exercise that 
much of power. It scarcely protected its seamen from the 
English press-gang and the Algerine slave-driver ; much 
less did it think of rescuing a solitary individual from a 
rock in tho midst of the Pacific. American vessels did 
then roam over that distant ocean, but it was comparatively 
in small numbers, and under circumstances that promised 
but little to the hopes of the hermit. It was a subject he 
did not like to dwell on, and he kept his thoughts as much 
diverted from it as it was in his power so to do. 

The season had now advanced into as much of autumn 
as could be found within the tropics, and on land so low. 
Everything in the garden had ripened, and much had been 
thrown out to the pigs and poultry, in anticipation of its 
decay. Mark saw that it was time to recommence his 
beds, selecting such seed as would best support the winter 
of that climate, if winter it could be called. In looking 
around him, he made a regular survey of all his posses- 
sions, inquiring into the state of each plant he had put into 
the ground, as well as into that of the ground itself. 
First, then, as respects the plants. 

The growth of the oranges, lemons, cocoa-nuts, limes, 
figs, etc., placed in rows beneath the cliffs, had been pro- 
digious. The water had run off the adjacent rocks and 
kept them well moistened most of the season, though a 
want of rain was seldom known on the Reef. Of the 
two, too^ much, rather than too little water fell a circum- 
stance that was of great service, however, in preserving 
the stock, which had used little beside that it found in the 
pools, for the last ten months. The shrubs, or little trees, 
were quite a foot high, and of an excellent color. Mark 
gave each of them a dressing with the hoe, and manured 
all with a sufficient quantity of the guano. About half 
he transplanted to spots more favorable, putting the cocoa- 
nuts, in particular, as near the sea as he could get them. 

With respect to the other plants, it was found that each 
hail flourished precisely in proportion to its adaptation to 
the climate. The products of some were increased in size, 


THE CRATER. 


147 


while those of others had dwindled. Mark took note of 
these facts, determining to cultivate those most which suc- 
ceeded best. The melons of both sorts, the tomatoes, the 
egg-plants, the peppers, cucumbers, onions, beans, corn, 
sweet-potatoes, etc., etc., had all flourished ; while the 
Irish potato, in particular, had scarce produced a tuber 
at all. 

As for the soil, on examination Mark found it had been 
greatly improved by the manure, tillage, and water it had 
received. The hogs were again let in to turn it over with 
their snouts, and this they did most effectually in the 
course of two or three days. By this time, in addition to 
the three grown porkers our young man possessed, there 
were no less than nine young ones. This number was 
getting to be formidable, and he saw the necessity of kill- 
ing off, in order to keep them within reasonable limits. 
One of the fattest. and best he converted into pickled pork, 
not from any want of that article, there being still enough 
left in the ship to last him several years, but because he 
preferred it corned to that which had been in the salt so 
long a time. He saw the mistake he had made in allowing 
the pigs to get to be so large, since the meat would spoil 
long before he could consume even the smallest-sized, 
shoats. For their own good, however, he was compelled 
to shoot no less than five, and these he buried entire, in 
deep places in his garden, having heard that earth which 
had imbibed animal substances, in this way, was converted 
into excellent manure. 

Mark now made a voyage to Loam Island, in quest of a 
cargo, using the raft, and towing the dingui. It was on 
this occasion that our young man was made to feel how 
much he had lost, in the way of labor, in being deprived 
of the assistance of Bob. He succeeded in loading ins 
raft, however, and was just about to sail for home again, 
when it occurred to him that possibly the seeds and roots 
of the asparagus he had put into a corner of the deposit 
might have come to something. Sure enough, on going to 
the spot, Mark found that the seed had taken well, and 
hundreds of young plants were growing flourishingly, 


US 


THE CRATER. 


while plants fit to eat had pushed their tops through the! 
loam from the roots. This was an important discovery,! 
asparagus being a vegetable of which Mark was exceed-; 
ingly fond, and one easily cultivated. In that climate, and 
in a soil sufficiently rich, it might be made to send up new 
shoots the entire year ; and there was little fear of scurvy 
so long as he could obtain plenty of this plant to eat. 
The melons and other vegetables, however, had removed 
all Mark’s di-ead of that formidable disease ; more espe- 
cially as he had now eggs, chickens, and fresh fish, the lat- 
ter in quantities that were almost oppressive. In a word, 
tlie means of subsistence now gave the young man no con- 
cern whatever. When he first found himself on a barren 
rock, indeed, the idea had almost struck terror into his 
mind ; but now that he had ascertained that his crater I 
could be cultivated, and promised, like most other extinct | 
volcanoes, unbounded fertility, he could no longer appre- 
hend a disease which is commonly owing to salted provis- 
ions. 

When Mark found his health completely reestablished, 
he sat down and drew up a regular plan of dividing his 
time between work, contemplation, and amusement. For- 
tunately, perhaps, for one who lived in a climate where 
vegetation was so luxuriant when it could be produced at 
all, work was pressed into his service as an amusement. 
Of the last there was certainly very little, in the common 
acceptation of the word ; but our hermit was not without 
it altogether. He studied the habits of the sea-birds that 
congregated in thousands around so many of the rocks of 
the Reef, though so few scarce ever ventured on the crater 
island. He made voyages to and fro, usually connecting 
business with pleasure. Taking favorable times for such 
purposes, he fioated several cargoes of loam to the Reef, 
as well as two enormous rafts of sea-weed. Mark was 
quite a month in getting these materials into his compost 
heap, which he intended should lie in a pile during the 
winter, in order that it might be ready for spading in the 
spring. We use these terms by way of distinguishing the 
seasons, though of winter, strictly speaking, there was 


THE CRAIER. 


- 149 


I 

none. Of the two, the grass grew better at miiwinter 
than at midsummer, the absence of the burning heat of 
the last being favorable to its growth. As the season ad- 
vanced, Mark saw his grass very sensibly increase, not 
only in surface, but in thickness. There were now spots 
of some size, where a turf was forming, nature performing 
all her tasks in that genial climate, in about a fourth of 
the time it would take to effect the same object in the tem- 
j)erate zone. On examining these places, Mark came to 
the conclusion that the roots of his grasses acted as culti- 
vators, by working their way into the almost insensible 
crevices of the crust, letting in air and water to places 
whence they had hitherto been excluded. This seemed, in 
particular, to be the case with the grass that grew within 
the crater, which, had increased so much in the course of 
what may be termed the winter, that it was really fast con- 
verting a plain of a light drab color, that was often painful 
to the eyes, into a plot of as lovely verdure as ever 
adorned the meadows of a Swiss cottage. It became de- 
sirable to keep this grass down, and Kitty being unable to 
crop a meadow of so many acres, Mark was compelled to 
admit his pigs and poultry again. This he did at stated 
times only, however ; or when he was at work himself in 
the garden, and could prevent their depredations on his 
beds. The rooting gave him the most trouble ; but this he 
contrived in a great measure to prevent, by admitting his 
hogs only when they were eager for grass, and turning 
them out as soon as they began to generalize, like an epi- 
cure picking bis nuts after dinner. 

It was somewhere near mid-winter, by Mark’s calcula- 
tions, when the- young man commenced a new task that 
was of great importance to his comfort, and which might 
affect his future life. He had long determined to lay 
down a boat, one of sufficient size to explore the whole 
Reef in, if not large enough to carry him out to sea. The 
dingui was altogether too small for labor ; though exceed- 
ingly useful in its way, and capable of being managed even 
in pretty rough water by a skillful hand, it wanted both 
weight and room. It was difficult to float in even a raft 


150 


THE CRATER. 


of sea-weed, with so light a boat ; and as for towing the ■ 
raft, it was next to impossible. But the raft was unwieldy, 
and when loade^^ffown, besides carrying very little for its 
great weight, it was very much at the mercy of the cur- 
rents and waves. Then the construction of a boat was 
having an important purpose in view, and, in that sense, 
was a desirable undertaking. 

Mark had learned so much in putting the pinnace to- 
gether, that he believed himself equal to this new under- 
taking. Materials enough remained in the ship to make 
half a dozen boats, and in tumbling over the lumber he had 
found a quantity of stuff that had evidently been taken in 
with a view to repair boats, if not absolutely to construct 
them. A ship’s hold is such an omnium gatherum, stow 
age being necessarily so close, that it usually requires time 
for one who does not know where to put his hand on 
everything, to ascertain how much or how little is to be 
found ill it. Such was the fact with Mark, whose court- 
ship and* marriage had made a considerable inroad on his 
duties as a mate. As he overhauled the hold, he daily 
found fresh reasons for believing that Friend Abraham 
White had made provisions, of one sort and another, of 
which he was profoundly ignorant, but which, as the voy- 
age had terminated, proved to be of the greatest util- 
ity. Thus it was, that just as he was about to commence 
getting out these great requisites from new planks, he 
came across a stem, stern-frame, and keel of a boat that 
was intended to be eighteen feet long. Of course our 
young man profited by this discovery, getting the materials 
of all sorts, including these, round to the ship-yard by 
means of the raft. 

For the next two months, or until he had reason to be- 
lieve spring had fairly set in, Mark toiled faithfully at 
his boat. Portions of his work gave him a great deal of 
trouble ; some of it on account of ignorance of the craft, 
and some on account of his being alone. Getting the 
awning up anew cost poor Mark the toil of several days, 
and this because his single strength was not sufficient to 
hoist the corners of that heavy course, even when aided by 


THE CRATER. 


151 


watch-tackles. He was compelled to rig a crab, with which 
he effected his purpose, reserving the machine to aid him 
on other occasions. Then the model of the boat cost him 
a great deal of time and labor. Mark knew a good 
bottom when he saw it, but that was a very different thing 
from knowing how to make one. Of the rules of draught- 
ing he was altogether ignorant, and his eye was his only 
guide. He adopted a plan that was sufficiently ingenious, 
though it would never do to build a navy on the same 
principle. 

Having a great plenty of deal, Miirk got out in the rough 
about twice as many timbers for one side of his boat as 
would be required, in this thin stuff, when he set them up 
ill their places. Aided by this beginning, the young man 
began to dub and cut away, until he got each piece into 
something very near the shape his eye told him it ought to 
be. Even after he had got as far as this, our boat-builder 
passed a week in shaving, and planing, and squinting, and 
in otherwise reducing diis lines to fair proportions. Satis- 
fied, at length, with the bottom he had thus fashioned, 
Mark took out just one half of his pieces, leaving the other 
half standing. After these moulds did he saw and cut his 
boat’s timbers, making, in each instance, duplicates. When 
the ribs and floors of his craft were ready, he set them up 
in the vacancies, and secured them,, after making an accu- 
rate fit with the pieces left standing. On knocking away 
the deal portions of his work, Mark had the frame of his 
boat complete. This was much the most troublesome part 
of the whole job; nor was it finished, when the young man 
was obliged, by the progress of the seasons, to quit the 
ship-yard for the garden. 

Mark had adopted a system of diet and a care of his 
person, that kept him in perfect health, illness being the 
evil that he most dreaded. His food was more than half 
vegetable, several plants having come forward even in the 
winter ; and the asparagus, in particular, yielding at a rate 
that would have made the fortune of a London gardener. 
The size of tlie plants he cut was really astounding, a dozen 
stems actually making a meal The hens laid all winter, 


152 


THE CRATER. 


and eggs were never wanting. The corned pork gave sub- 
stance, as well as a relish, to all the dishes the young man 
cooked ; and the tea, sugar, and coffee promising to hold 
out years longer, the table still gave him little concern, 
Once in a month or so he treated himself to a bean-soup, 
or a pea-soup, using the stores of the Rancocus for that 
purpose, foreseeing that the salted meats would spoil after 
a time, and the dried vegetables get to be worthless, by 
means of insects and worms. By this time, however, there 
were fresh crops of both those vegetables, which grew 
better in the winter than they could in the summei-, in 
that hot climate. Fish, too, were used as a change, when- 
ever the young man had an inclination for that sort of 
food, which was as often as three or four times a week ; 
the little pan-fish already mentioned being of a sort of 
whicli one would scarcely ever tire. 

It being a matter of some moment to save unnecessary 
labor, Mark seldom cooked more than once in twenty-four 
hours, and then barely enough to last for that day. In 
consequence of this rule, he soon learned how little was 
really necessary for the wants of one person, it being his 
opinion that a quarter of an acre o"f such soil as that which 
now composed his garden, would more than furnish all the 
vegetables he could consume. The soil, it is true, was of 
a very superior quality. Although it had lain so long un- 
productive and seemingly barren, now that it had been 
stirred, and air and water were admitted, and guano, and 
sea-weed, and loam, and dead fish had been applied, and 
all in quantities that would have been deemed very ample 
in the best wrought gardens of Christendom, the acre he 
had under tillage might be said to have been brought to the 
highest stage of fertility. It wanted a little in consistency, 
perhaps ; but the compost heap was very large, containing 
enough of all the materials just mentioned to give the 
garden another good dressing. As for the grass, Mark 
was convinced the guano was all-sufficient for that, and 
this he took care to apply as often as once in two or three 
months. 

Our young man was never tired, indeed, with feasting 


THE CRATER. 


153 


his eyes with the manner in which the grass had spread 
over the mount. It is true that he had scattered seed, at 
odd and favorable moments, over most of it, by this time ; 
but he was persuaded the roots of those first sown would 
have extended themselves, in the course of a year or two, 
over the whole Summit. Nor were these grasses thin and 
sickly, threatening as early an extinction as they had been 
quick in coming to maturity. On the contrary, after break- 
ing what might be called the crust of the rock with their 
vigorous though nearly invisible roots, they made a bed 
for themselves, on which they promised to repose, for ages. 
The great frequency of the rains favored their growth, 
and Mark was of opinion, after the experience of one 
summer, that his little mountain might be green the year 
round. 

We have called the mount of the crater little, but the 
term ought not to be used in reference to such a hill, when 
the extent of the island itself was considered. By actual 
measurement, Mark had ascertained that there was one 
knoll on the Summit which was just seventy-two feet above 
the level of the rock. The averageHieight, however, might 
be given as somewhat less than fifty. Of surface, the rocky 
barrier of the crater had almost as much as the plain within 
it, though it was so broken and' uneven as not to appear 
near as large. Kitty had long since determined that the 
hill was more than large enough for all her wants ; and 
glad enough did she seem when Mark succeeded, after a 
great deal of difficulty, rn driving the hogs up a flight of 
steps he had made within the crater, to help her crcp the 
herbage. As for the rooting of the last, so long as they 
were on the Summit, it was so much the better ; since, in 
that climate, it was next to impossible to kill grass that 
was once fairly in grow'th, and the more the crust of the 
ashes was broken, the more rapid and abundant would be 
tlie vegetation. 

INfark had, of course, abandoned the idea of continuing 
to cultivate his melons, or any other vegetables, on the 
Summit, or he never would have driven his hogs there. 
He was unwilling, notwithstanding, to lose the benefit of 


/ 


154 THE CRATER. ( 

the deposits of soil and manure which he and Rob had | 
made there with so much labor to themselves. After re- 
flecting what he could do with them, he came to the con- 
clusion that he would make small inclosures around some 
fifteen or twenty of the places, and transplant some of tlie 
fig-trees, orange-trees, limes, lemons, etc., which still stood 
rather too thick within the crater to ripen their fruits to 
advantage. In order to make these little inclosures, Mark 
merely drove into the earth short posts, passing around 
them old rope, of which there was a superabundance on 
board the ship. This arrangement suggested the idea of 
fencing in the garden, by the same means, in order to admit 
the pigs to eat the grass, when he was not watching them. 
By the time these dispositions were made, it was necessary 
to begin again to put in the seeds. 

On this occasion Mark determined to have a succession 
of crops, and not to bring on everything at once, as he had 
done the first year of his tillage. Accordingly, he would 
manure and break up a bed, and plant or sow it, waiting 
a few days before he began another. Experience had told 
him that there was never an end to vegetation in that cli- 
mate, and he saw no use in pushing his labors faster than 
he might require their fruits. It was true, certain plants 
did better if permitted to come to maturity in particular 
periods, but the season was so long as very well to allow 
of the arrangement just mentioned. As this distribution 
of his time gave the young man a good deal of leisure, he 
employed it in the ship-yard. Thus the boat and the gar- 
den were made to advance together, and when the last was 
sown and planted, the first was ' planked. When the last 
bed was got in, moreover, those first set in order were 
already giving forth their increase. Mark had abundance 
of delicious salad, young onions, radishes that seemed to 
grow like mushrooms, young pease, beans, etc., in quanti- 
ties that enabled him to turn the hogs out on the Reef, 
and keep them well on the refuse of his garden, assisted a 
little by what was always to be picked up on the rocks. 

By this time Mark had settled on a system which he 
thought to pursue. There was no use in his raising more 


THE CRATER. 


155 


pigs than he could use. Taking care to preserve the breed, 
therefore, he killed off the pigs, of which he had fresh 
litters, from time to time ; and when he found the old hogs 
getting to be troublesome, as swine will become with years, 
he just shot them, and buried their bodies in his compost 
heap, or in his garden, where one common sized hog would 
render highly fertile several yards square of earth, or 
ashes. This practice he continued ever after, extending 
it to his fowls and ducks, the latter of which produced a 
great many eggs. By rigidly observing this rule, Mark 
avoided an evil which is very common even in inhabited 
countries, that of keeping more stock than is good for their 
owner. Six or eight hens laid more eggs than he could 
consume, and there was always a sufficient supply of 
chickens for his wants. In short, our hermit had every- 
thing he actually required, and most things that could con- 
tribute to his living in great abundance. The necessity of 
cooking for himself, and the want of pure, cold spring 
water, were the two greatest physical hardships he en- 
dured. There were moments, indeed, when Mark would 
have gladly yielded one half of the advantages he act- 
ually possessed, to have a good spring of living water. 
Then he quelled the repinings of his ^spirit at this priva- 
tion, by endeavoring to recall how many blessings were left 
at his command, '’comf)ared to the wants and sufferings of 
many anqther shipwrecked mariner of whom he had read 
or heard. > 

The spring passed as,pleasantly as thoughts of home and 
Bridget would allow, and his beds and plantations flourished 
to a degree that surprised him. As for the grass, as soon as 
it once got root, it became a most beneficial assistant to his 
plans of husbandry. Nor was it grass alone that rewarded 
Mark’s labors and forethought in his meadows and ,past- 
ures. Various flowers appeared in the herbage ; and he 
was delighted at finding a little patch of the common wild 
strawberry, the seed of which had doubtless got mixed with 
those of the grasses. Instead of indulging his palate with 
a taste of this delicious and most salubrious fruit, Mark 
carefully collected it all, made a bed in his garden, and in- 


156 


THE CRATER. 


eluded the cultivation of tliis among his other plants. He 
would not disturb a single root of the twenty or thirty 
different shoots that he found, all being together, and 
coming from the same cast of his hand while sowing, lest 
it might die ; but, with the seed of the fruit, he was less 
chary. One thing struck Mark as singular. Thus far his 
garden was absolutely free from weeds of every sort. The 
seed that he put into the ground came up, and nothing 
else. This greatly simplified his toil, though he had no 
doubt that, in the course of time, he should meet with in- 
truders in his beds. He could only account for this cir- 
cumstance by the facts, that the ashes of the volcano con- 
tained of themselves no combination of the elements 
necessary to produce plants, and that the manures he used, 
in their nature, were free from weeds. 


THE CRATER. 


157 


CHAPTER XL 

The globe around earth’s hollow surface shakes, 

And is the ceiling of her sleeping sons : 

O’er devastation we blind revels keep ; 

While buried towns support the dancer’s heel. 

Young. 

It was again midsummer ere Mark Woolston had his 
boat ready for launching. He had taken things leisurely, 
and completed his work in all its parts, before he thought 
of putting the craft into the water. Afraid of worms, 
he used some of the old copper on this boat, too ; and 
he painted her, inside and out, not only with fidelity, but 
with taste. Although there was no one but Kitty to talk 
to, he did not forget to paint the name which he had given 
to his new vessel, in her stern-sheets, where he could al- 
ways see it. She was called the “ Bridget Yardley ; ” 
and, notwithstanding the unfavorable circumstances in which 
she had been put together, Mark thought she did no dis- 
credit to her beautiful namesake when completed. When 
he had everything finished, even to mast and sails, of the 
last of which he fitted her with mainsail and jib, the 
young man set about his prej^arations for getting his vessel 
afloat. 

There was no process by which one man could move a 
boat of the size of the Bridget, while out of its proper 
element, but to launch it by means of regular ways. 
With a view to this contingency, the keel had been laid 
between the ways of the Neshainony, which were now all 
ready to be used. Of course it was no great job to make 
a cradle for a boat, and our boat-builder had “ wedged up,” 
and got the keel of his craft off the blocks,” within eight- 
and-forty hours after he had begun upon that part of his 
task. It only remained to knock away the spur-shores and 


158 


THE CRATER. 


start the boat. Until that instant, Mark had pursued his j 
work on the Bridget as mechanically and steadily as if j 
hired by the day. When, however, he perceived that he j 
was so near his goal, a flood of sensations came over the 
young man, and his limbs trembled to a degree that com- 
pelled him to be seated. Who could tell the consequences 
to which that boat might lead ? Who knew but the 
Bridget might prove the means of carrying him to his 
own Bridget, and restoring him to civilized life ? At that 
instant, it appeared to Mark as if his existence de- 
pended on the launching of his boat, and he was fearful 
some unforeseen accident might prevent it. He was ob- 
liged to wait several minutes in order to recover his self- 
possession. 

At length Mark succeeded in subduing this feeling, and 
he resumed his work with most of his former self-com- 
mand. Everything being ready, he knocked away the 
spur-shores, and finding the boat did not start, he gave it 
a blow with a mawl. This set the mass in motion, and 
the little craft slid down the ways without any interrup- 
tion, until it became water-born, when it shot out from the 
Reef like a duck. Mark was delighted with his new 
vessel,- now that it was fairly afloat, and saw that it sat on 
an even keel, according to his best hopes. Of course he 
had not neglected to secure it with a line, by which he 
hauled it in towards the rock, securing it in a natural basin 
which was just large enough for such a purpose. So 
great, indeed, were his apprehensions of losing his boat, 
which now seemed so precious to liim, that he had worked 
some ringbolts out of the ship and let them into the rock, 
where he had secured them by means of melted lead, in 
ordei’ to mak4B fast to. 

The Bridget was not more than a fourth of the size of 
the Neshamony, though rather more than half as long. 
Nevertheless, she was a good boat ; and Mark, knowing 
that he must depend on sails principally to move her, had 
built a short deck forward to prevent the seas from break- 
ing aboard her, as well as to give him a place in which he 
might stow away various articles, under cover from the 


thp: crater. 


159 


rain Her ballast was breakers, filled with fresh v ater, 
of which there still remained several in the ship. All 
these, as well as her masts, sails, oars, etc., -were in her 
when she was launched ; and that important event having 
taken place early in the morning Mark could not restrain 
his impatience for a cruise, but determined to go out on 
the Reef at once, further than he had ever yet ventured 
in the dingui, in order to explore the seas around him. 
Accordingly, he put some food on board, loosened his fasts, 
and made sail. 

The instant the boat moved ahead, and began to obey 
her helm, Mark felt as if be had found a new companion. 
Hitherto Kitty had, in a measure, filled this place ; bht a 
boat had been the young man’s delight on the Delaware, 
in his boyhood, and he had not tacked his present craft 
more than two or three times, before he caught himself 
ialking to^^it, and commending it, as he would a human 
being. As the wind usually blew in the same direction, and 
generally a good stiff breeze, Mark beat up between the 
Reef and Guano Island, working round the weather end 
of the former, until he came out at the anchorage of the 
Rancocus. After beating about in that basin a little while, 
as if merely to show off the Bridget to the ship, Mark put 
the former close by the wind, and stood off in the channel 
by which he and Bob had brought the latter into her pres- 
ent berth. 

It was easy enough to avoid all such breakers as would 
be dangerous to a boat, by simply keeping out of white 
water ; but the Bridget could pass over most of the reefs 
with impunity, on account of the depth of the sea on them. 
Mark beat up, on short tacks, therefore, until he found the 
two buoys between which he had brought the ship, and 
passing to windward of them, he stood off in the direction 
where he expected to find the reef over which the Ranco- 
cus had beaten. He was not long in making this discov- 
ery. There still floated the buoy of the bower watching 
as faithfully as the seaman on his look-out ! Mark ran the 
boat up to this well-tried sentinel, and caught the lanyard, 
holding on by it, after lowering his sails. 


160 


THE CEATER. 


The boat was now moored by the buoy-rope of the ship’s 
anchor, and it occurred to our young man that a certain 
use might be made of this melancholy memorial of the ca- 
lamity that had befallen the Raiicocus. The anchor lay 
quite near a reef, on it indeed in one sense ; and it was in 
such places that fish most abounded. Fishing-tackle was 
in the boat, and Mark let down a line. • His success was 
prodigious. The fish were hauled in almost as fast as he 
could bait and lower his hook, and what was more they 
proved to be larger and finer than those taken at the old 
fishing-grounds. By the experience of the half hour he 
passed at the spot, Mark felt certain that he could fill his 
boat there in a day’s fishing. After hauling in some twenty 
or thirty, however, he cast off from the lanyard, hoisted his 
sails and crossed the reef, still working to windward. 

It was Mark’s wish to learn something of the nature and 
extent of the shoals in this direction. With this object in 
view, he continued beating up, sometimes passing boldly 
through shallow water, at others going about to avoid that 
which he thought might be dangerous, until he believed 
himself to be about ten miles to windward of the island. 
The ship’s masts were his beacon, for the crater had sunk 
below the horizon, or if visible at all, it was only at inter- 
vals, as the boat was lifted on a swell, when it appeared a 
low hummock, nearly awash. It was with difficulty that 
the naked spars could be seen at that distance ; nor could 
they be, except at moments, and that because the compass 
told the young man exactly where to look for them. 

As for the appearance of the reefs, no naked rock was 
anywhere to be seen in this direction, though there were 
abundant evidences of the existence of shoals. As well as 
he could judge, Mark was of opinion that these shoals ex- 
tended at least twenty miles in this direction, he having 
turned up fully five leagues without getting clear of them. 
At that distance from his solitary home, and out of sight 
of everything like land, did the young man eat his frugal, 
but good and nourishing dinner, with his jib-sheet to wind- 
ward and the boat hove-to. The freshness of the breeze 
had induced him to reef, and under that short sail, he found 


' THE CRATER. 


IGl 


the Bridget everything he could wish. Tt was now a])out 
the middle of tlie afternoon, and Mark thought it prudent 
to turn out his reef, and run down for the crater. In half 
an hour he caught sight of the spars of the ship ; and ten 
minutes later, the Summit appeared above the horizon. 

It had been the intention of our young sailor to stay 
out all night, had the weather been promising. His wish 
was to ascertain how he might manage the boat, single- 
handed, while he slept, and also to learn the extent of the 
shoals. As the extraordinary fertility of the crater super- 
seded the necessity of his laboring much to keep himself 
supplied with food, he had formed a plan of cruising off 
the shoals, for days at a time, in the hope of falling in 
with something that was passing, and which might carry 
him back to the haunts of men. No vessel would or could 
come in sight of the crater, so long as the existence of the 
reefs was known ; but the course steered by the liancocus 
was a proof that ships did occasionally pass in that quarter 
of the Pacific. Mark had indulged in no visionary hopes 
on this subject, for he knew he might keep in the offing a 
twelve-month and see nothing ; but an additional twenty- 
four hours might realize all his hopes. 

The weather, however, on this his first experiment, did 
not encourage him to remain out the whole night. On the 
contrary, by the time the crater was in sight, Mark thought 
he had not seen a more portentous looking sky since he 
had been on the Reef. There was a fiery redness in the 
atmosphere that alarmed him, and he would have rejoiced 
to be at home, in order to secure his stock within the cra- 
ter. From the appearances, he anticipated another tem- 
pest with its flood. It is true, it was not the season when 
the last occurred, but the climate might admit of these 
changes. The difference between summer and winter was 
very trifling on that Reef, and a hurricane, or a gale, was 
as likely to occur in the one as in the other. 

Just as the Bridget was passing the two buoys by which 
the ship-channel had been marked, her sail flapped. This 
was a bad omen, for it betokened a shift of wind, which 
rarely happened, unless it may be from six months to six 
11 


162 


THE CRATER. 


montlis, without being the precursor of some sort of a stoi’m. 
Mark was still two miles from the Reef, and the little wind 
there was soon came ahead. Luckily it was smooth water, 
and very little air sufficed to force that light craft ahead, 
while there was usually a current setting from that point 
towards the crater. .The birds, moreover, seemed uneasy, 
the air being filled with them, thousands Hying over the 
boat, around which they wheeled, screaming and appar- 
ently terrified. At first Mark ascribed tiiis unusual be- 
havior of his feathered neighbors to the circumstance of 
their now seeing a boat for the commencement of such an 
acquaintance ; but recollecting how often he had passed 
their haunts, in the dingui, when they would hardly get 
out of the way, he soon felt certain there must be another 
reason for this singular conduct. 

The sun went down in a bank of lurid fire, and the 
Bridget was still a mile from the ship. A new apprehen- 
sion now came over our hermit. Should a tempest bring 
the wind violently from the westward, as was very likely 
to be the case under actual circumstances, he might be 
driven out to sea, and, did the little craft resist the waves, 
forced so far off as to make him lose the Reef altogether. 
Then it was that Mark deeply felt how much had been 
left him, by casting his lot on that beautiful and luxuriant 
crater, instead of reducing him to those dregs of misery 
which so many shipwrecked mariners are compelled to 
swallow ! How much, or how many of the blessings that 
he enjoyed on the Reef, would he not have been willing to 
part with, that evening, in order to secure a safe arrival at 
the side of the Rancocus ! By the utmost care to profit 
by every puff of air, and by handling the boat with the 
greatest skill, this happy result was obtained, however, 
without any sacrifice. 

About nine o’clock, ajid not sooner, the boat was well 
secured, and Mark went into his cabin. Here he knelt 
and returned thanks to God, for his safe return to a place 
that was getting to be as precious to him as the love of life 
could render it. After this, tired with his day’s work, the 
young man got into his berth and endeavored to sleep. 


THE CRATER. 


163 


The fatigue of the day, notwithstanding the invigorating 
freshness of the 'breeze, acted as an anodyne, and our 
young man soon forgot his adventures and his boat, in pro- 
found slumbers. It was many hours ere Mark awoke, 
and when he did, it was with a sense of suffocation. At 
first he thought the ship had taken fire, a lurid light gleam- 
ing in the open door of the cabin, and he sprang to his 
feet in recollection of the danger he ran from the maga- 
zine, as well as . from being burned. But no cracking of 
flames reaching his ears, he dressed hastily and went out 
on the poop. He had just reached this deck, when he felt 
the whole ship tremble from her truck to her keel, and a 
rushing of water was heard on all sides of him as if a flood 
were coming. Hissing sounds were heard, and streams of 
fire, and gleams of lurid light were seen in the air. It was 
a terrible moment, and one that might well induce any 
man to imagine that time was drawing to its close. 

o o 

Mark Woolston now comprehended his situation, not- 
withstanding the intense darkness which prevailed, except 
in those brief intervals of lurid light. He had felt the 
shock of an earthquake, and the volcano had suddenly be- 
come active. Smoke and ashes certainly filled the air, and 
our poor hermit instinctively looked towards his crater, 
already so verdant and lively, in the expectation of seeing 
it vomit flames. Everything there was tranquil ; the danger, 
if danger there was, was assuredly more remote. But the 
murky vapor which rendered breathing exceedingly difficult, 
also obstructed the view, and prevented his seeing where 
the explosion really was. For a brief space our young 
man fancied he must certainly be suffocated ; but a shift of 
wind came, and blew away the oppressive vapor, clearing 
the atmosphere of its sulphurous and most offensive gases 
and odors. Never did feverish tongue enjoy the cooling 
and healthful draught, more than Mark rejoiced in this 
cliange. The wind had got back to its old quarter, and 
the air he respired soon became pure and refreshing. Had 
the impure atmosphere lasted ten minutes longer, Mark 
felt persuaded he could not have breathed it with any 
safety 


11)4 


THE CRATER. 


Tlie light was now most impatiently expected by onr 
young man. The minutes seemed to drag ; but at length 
the usual signs of returning day became appai-ent to him, 
and he got on the bowsprit of the ship as if to meet it in 
its approach. There he stood looking to the eastward, 
eager to have ray after ray shoot into the firmament, when 
he was suddenly struck with a change in that quarter of the 
ocean, which at once proclaimed the power of the effort 
which the earth had made in its subterranean throes. 
Naked rocks a[)peared in places where Mark was certain 
water in abundance had existed a few hours before. The 
sea-wall, directly ahead of the ship, and which never showed 
itself above the surface more than two or three inches, in 
any part of it, and that only at exceedingly neap tides, was 
now not only bare for a long distance, but parts rose ten and 
fifteen feet above the surrounding sea. This proved, at 
once, that the earthquake had thrust upward a vast surface 
of the Reef, completely altering the whole appearance of 
the shoal! In a word, nature had made another effort, and 
islands had been created, as it might be in the twinkling of 
an eye. 

Mark was no sooner assured of this stupendous fact, than 
he hurried on to the poop, in order to ascertain what 
changes had occurred in and about the crater. It had been 
pushed upward, in common with all the rocks for miles on 
every side of it, though withoufdisturbing its surface ! By 
the computation of our young man, the Reef, which pre- 
viously^ lay about six feet above the level of the ocean, 
was now fully twenty, so many cubits having been, by one 
single but mighty effort of nature, added to its stature. 
The planks which led from the stern of the vessel to the 
shore and which had formed a descent, were now nearly 
level, so much water having left the basin as to produce 
this change. Still the ship floated, enough remaining to 
keep her keel clear of the bottom. 

Impatient to learn all, Mark ran ashore, for by this time 
it was broad daylight, and hastened into the crater, with 
an intention to ascend at once to the Summit. As he 
passed along, he could detect no change whatever on the 


THE CRATER. 


155 


surface of the Reef ; everything lying just as it had been 
left, and the pigs and poultry were at their usual business 
of providing for their own wants. Ashes, however, were 
strewn over the rocks to a depth that left his foot-prints 
as distinct as they could have been made in a light snow. 
Within the crater the same appearances were observed, 
fully an inch of ashes covering its verdant pastures and the 
whole garden. This gave Mark very little concern, for he 
knew that the first rain would wash this rlrab-looking 
mantle into the earth, where it would answer all the pur- 
poses of a rich dressing of manure. 

On reaching the Summit, our young man was enabled to 
form a better opinion of the vast changes which had been 
wrought around him, by this sudden elevation of the earth’s 
crust. Everywhere sea seemed to be converted into land, 
or, at least, into rock. All the white water had disappeared, 
and in its place arose islands of rock, or mud, or sand. A 
good deal of the last was to be seen, and some quite near 
the Reef, as we shall still continue to call the island of the 
crater. Island, however, it could now hardly be termed. 
It is true that ribbons of water approached it on all sides, 
resembling creeks, and rivers, and small sounds ; but, as 
Mark stood there on the Summit, it seemed to him that it 
was now possible to walk for leagues, in every direction, 
commencing at the crater and following the lines of reefs, 
and rocks, and sands, that had been laid bare by the late 
upheaving. The extent of this change gave him confidence 
in its permanency, and the young man had hopes that what 
had thus been produced by the Providence of God would 
be permitted to remain, to answer his own benevolent pur- 
poses. It certainly made an immense difference in his 
own situation. The boat could still be used, but it was 
now possible for him to ramble for hours, if not for days, 
along the necks, and banks, and hummocks, and swales that 
had been formed, and that with a dry foot. His limits 
were so much enlarged as to offer something like a new 
world to his enterprise and curiosity. 

The crater, nevertheless, was apparently about the centre 
of this new creation. To the south, it is true, the eye 


166 


THE 'CRATER. 


could not penetrate more than two or three leagues. Ai 
vast, dun-looking cloud still covered the sea in that direc-|| 
tion, veiling its surface far and wide, and mingling with| 
the vapors of the upper atmosphere. Somewhere withini 
this cloud, how far or how near from him he knew not,n 
Mark made no doubt a new outlet to the pent forces ofj 
the inner earth was to be found, forming another and anij 
active crater for the exit of the fires beneath. Geology | 
was a science that had not made its present progress in the! 
day of Mark Woolston, but his education had been too good! 
to leave him totally without a theory for what had hap- i 
pened. He supposed that the internal fires had produced 
so much gas, just beneath this spot, as to open crevices at 
the bottom of the ocean, through which water had flowed 
in sufficient quantities to create a vast body of steam, which 
steam had been the immediate agent of lifting so much of 
the rock and land, and of causing the earthquake. At the 
same time, the internal fires had acted in concert ; and i 
following an opening, they had got so near the surface as 
so force a chimney for their own exit, in the form of this 
new crater, of the existence of which, from all the signs to 
the southward, Maik did not entertain the smallest doubt. 

This theory may have been true, in whole or in part, or 
it may have been altogether erroneous. Such speculations 
seldom turn out to be minutely accurate. So many un- 
known causes exist in so many unexpected forms, as to 
render precise estimates of their effects, in cases of physical 
phenomena, almost as uncertain as those which follow 
similar attempts at an analysis of human motives and hu- 
man conduct. The man who has been much the subject 
of the conjectures and opinions of his fellow-creatures, in 
this way, must have many occasions to wonder, and some 
to smile, when he sees how completely those around him 
misjudge his wishes and impulses. Although formed of 
the same substance, influenced by the same selfishness, and 
governed by the same passions, in nothing do_ men oftener 
err than in this portion of the exercise of their intellects. 
The errors arise from one man’s rigidly judging his fellow 
by himself, and that which he would do he fancies other.** 


THE CRATER. 


167 


would do also. This rule would be pretty safe, could we 
always penetrate into the wants and longings of others, 
which quite as often fail to correspond closely with our 
own, as do their characters, fortunes, and hopes. 

At first sight, Mark had a good deal of difficulty in un- 
derstanding the predominant nature of the very many 
bodies of water that were to be seen on every side of him. 
On the whole, there still remained almost as much of one 
element as of the other, in the view ; which of itself, how- 
ever, was a vast change from what had previously been the 
condition of the shoals. There were large bodies of water, 
little lakes in extent, which it was obvious enough must 
disappear under the process of evaporation, no communi- 
cation existing between them and the open ocean. But, 
on the other hand, many of these sheets were sounds, or 
arms of the sea, that must always continue, since they 
might be traced, far as eye could reach, towards the mighty 
Pacific. Such, Mark was induced to believe, was the fact 
with the belt of water that still surrounded, or nearly sur- 
rounded the Reef ; for, placed where he was, the young 
man was unable to ascertain whether the latter had, or had 
not, at a particular point, any land communication with an 
extensive range of naked rock, sand, mud, and deposit that 
stretched away to the westward for leagues. In obvious 
connection with this broad reach of what might be termed 
bare ground, were Guano and Loam Islands ; neither of 
which was an island any longer, except as it was a part of 
the whole formation around it. Nevertheless, our young 
man was not sorry to see that the channel around the Reef 
still washed the bases of both those important places of 
deposit, leaving it in his power to transport their valuable 
manures by means of the raft or boat. 

The situation of the ship next became the matter of 
Mark’s most curious and interested investigation. She 
was clearly afloat, and the basin in which she rode had a 
communication on each side of it, with the sound or inlet 
that still encircled the Reef. Descending to the shore, 
our young mariner got into the dingui, and pulled out round 
the vessel, to make a more minute examination. So very 


168 


THE CRATER. 


limpid was the water of that sea, it was easy enough to 
discern a bright object on the bottom, at a depth of several 
fathoms. There were no streams in that part of the world 
to pour their deposits into the ocean, and air itself is 
scarce more transparent than the pure water of the ocean, 
when unpolluted with any foreign substances. All it wants 
is light to enable the eye to reach into its mysteries for a 
long way. Mark could very distinctly perceive the sand 
beneath the Rancocus’s keel, and saw that the ship still 
floated two or three feet clear of the bottom. It was near 
high water, however ; and there being usually a tide of 
about twenty inches, it was plain enough that, on certain 
winds, the good old craft would come in pretty close con- 
tact with the bottom.- All expectation of ever getting the 
vessel out of the basin must now be certainly abandoned, 
since she lay in a sort of cavity, where the water was six 
or eight feet deeper than it was within a hundred yards on 
each side of her. 

Having ascertained these facts, Mark provided himself 
with a fowling-piece, provisions, etc., and set out to ex- 
plore his newly acquired territories on foot. His steps 
were first directed to the point where it appeared to the 
eye that the vast range of dry land to the westward, ex- 
tending both north and south, had become connected with 
the Reef. If such connection existed at all, it was by two 
very narrow necks of rock, of equal height, both of which 
had come up out of the water under the late action, which 
action had considerably. altered and extended the shores of 
Crater Island. Sand appeared in various places along 
these shores, now ; whereas, previously to the earthquake, 
they had everywhere been nearly perpendicular rocks. 

Mark was walking, with an impatient step, towards the 
neck just mentioned, and which was at no great distance 
from the ship-yard, when his eye was attracted towards a 
- sandy beach of several acres in extent, that spread itself 
along the margin of the rocks, as clear from every impurity 
as it was a few hours before, when it had been raised from 
out of the bosom of the ocean. To him, it appeared that 
water was trickling through this sand, coming from beneath 


THE CRATER. 


169 


the lava of the Reef. At first, he supposed it was merely 
the remains of some small portion of the ocean that had 
penetrated to a cavity within, and which was now trickling 
back through the crevices of the rocks, to 'find its level, 
under the great law of nature. But it looked so pleasant 
to see once more water of any sort coming upwards from 
the earth, that the young man jumped down upon the sands, 
and hastened to the spot for further inquiry. Scooping up 
a little of the water in the hollow of his hand, he found it 
sweet, soft, and deliciously cool. Here was a discovery, 
indeed! The physical comfort for which he most pined 
was thus presented to him, as by a direct gift from heaven ; 
and no miser who had found a hoard of hidden gold, could . 
have felt so great pleasure, or a tenth part of the gratitude, 
of our young hermit, if hermit we may call one who did 
not voluntarily seek his seclusion from the world, and who 
worshiped God less as a penance than from love and ad- 
oration. 

Before quitting this new-found treasure, Mark opened a 
cavity in the sand to receive the water, placing stone around 
it to make a convenient and clean little basin. In ten 
minutes this place was filled with water almost as limpid 
as air, and every way as delicious as the palate of man 
could require. The young man could scarce tear himself • 
away from the spot, but fearful of drinking too much he 
did so, after a time. Before quitting the spring, however, 
he i^hiced a stone of some size at a gap in the rock, a pre- 
caution that completely prevented the hogs, should they 
stroll that way, from descending to the beach and defiling 
the limpid basin. As soon as he had leisure, Mark re- 
solved to sink a barrel in the sand, and to build a fence 
around it ; after which the stock might descend and drink 
at a pool he should form below, at })leasure. 

Mark proceeded. On reaching the narrowest part of 
the Neck, he found that the rocks did not meet, but the 
Reef still remained an island. The channel that separated 
the two points of rock was only about twenty feet wide, 
tiowever, though it was of fully twice that depth. The 
young man found it necessary to go back to the ship-yard 


170 


THE CRATER. 


(no great distance, by the way), and to bring a plank wiih | 
which to make a bridge. This done, he passed on to the 
newly emerged territory. As might have been expected, ! 
the rocks were found tolerably well furnished with fish, 
which had got caught in pools and crevices when the water 
flowed into the sea ; and what was of still more importance, 
another and a much larger spring of fresh water was found 
quite near the bridge, gushing through a deposit of sand 
of some fifteen or twenty acres in extent. The water of 
this spring had run down into a cavity, where it had already 
formed a little lake of some two acres in surface, and , 
whence it was already running into the sea, by overflowing 
its banks. These two discoveries induced Mark to return 
to the Reef again, in quest of the stock. After laying 
another plank at his bridge he called every creature he 
had over into the new territory ; for so great was the com-’ 
mand he had obtained over even the ducks, that all came 
willingly at his call. As for Kitty, she was never more . 
happy than when trotting at his side, accompanying him 
in his walks, like a dog. 

Glad enough were the pigs, in particular, to obtain this 
new range. Here was everything they could want ; food 
in thousands, sand to root on, fresh water to drink, pools 
j to wallow in, and a range for their migratory propensities. | 
Mark had no sooner set them at work on the sea-weed and 
shell-fish -that abounded there, for the time being at least, 
than he foresaw he should have to erect a gate at his 
bridge, and keep the hogs here most of the time. With 
such a range, and the deposits, of the tides alone, they I 
would have no great difficulty in making their own living. 
This would enable him to increase the number kept, which 
he had hitherto been obliged to keep down with the most i 
rigid attention to the increase. 

Mark now set out, in earnest, on his travels. He was ^ 
absent from the Reef the entire day. At one time, he 
thought he was quite two leagues in a straight line from 
the ship, though he had been compelled to walk four to 
get there. Everywhere he found large sheets of salt water, ' 
that had been left on the rocks, in consequence of the cav- 


THE CRATER. 


171 


ities in the latter. In several instances, these little lakes 
were near a mile in length, having the mo«t beautifullv 
undulating outlines. None of them were deep, of course, 
though their bottoms varied. Some of these bottoms were 
clean rock, others contained large deposits of mud ; and 
others, again, were of a clean, dark-colored sand. One, 
and one only, had a bottom of a bright, light-colored sand. 
As a matter of course, these lakes or pools must shortly 
evaporate, leaving their bottoms bare, or encrusted with 
salt. One thing gave the young man great satisfaction. 
He had kept along the margin of the channel that com- 
municated with the water that surrounded the Reef, and, 
when at the 'greatest distance from the crater, he ascended 
a rock that must have had an elevation of a hundred feet 
above the sea. Of course most of this rock had been above 
water previously to the late eruption, and Mark had often 
seen it at a distance, though he had never ventured through 
the white water near so far, in the dingui. When on its 
apex, Mark got an extensive view of the scene around him. 
In the first place, he traced the channel just mentioned 
quite into open water, which now appeared distinctly not 
many leagues farther towards the northwest. There were 
a great many other channels, some mere ribbons of water, 
others narrow sounds, and many resembling broad, deep, 
serpentine creeks, which last was their true character, 
being strictly inlets from the sea. The lakes or pools 
could be seen in hundreds, creating some confusion in the 
view ; but all these must soon disappear, in that climate. 

Towards the southward, however, Mark found the objects 
of his greatest wonder and admiration. By the time he 
reached the apex of the rock, the smoke in that quarter 
of the horizon had, in a great measure, risen from.the sea ; 
thoLio-h a column of it continued to ascend towards a vast 
:lun-colored cloud that overhung the place. To Mark’s 
astonishment he had seen some dark, dense body first 
looming through the rising vapor. When the last was 
sufiiciently removed, a high, ragged mountain became 
distinctly visible. He thought it arose at least a thousand 
feet above the ocean, and that it could not be less than a 


172 


THE CRATER. 


league in extent. Tins exhibition of the power of nature | 
filled the young man’s soul with adoration and reverence j 
for the mighty Being that could set such elements _at work. 
It did not alarm him, but rather tended to quiet his long- j 
ings to quit^ the place ; for he who lives amid such scenes j 
feels that he is so much nearer to the arm of God than | 
those who dwell in uniform security as to think less of i 
ordinary advantages than is common. j 

Mark knew that there must have been a dislocation of | 
the rocks, to produce such a change as that he saw to the ! 
southward. It was well for him it occurred there at a dis- 
tance, as he then thought, of ten or fifteen miles from the 
Reef, though in truth it was at quite fifty, instead of hap- 
pening beneath him. It was possible, however, for one to 
have been on the top of that mountain, and to have lived 
through the late change, could the lungs of. man have 
l)reathed the atmosphere. Not far from this mountain a 
column of smoke rose out of the sea, and Mark fancied 
that, at moments, he could discern the summit of an active 
crater at its base. 

After gazing at these astonishing changes for a long 
time, our young man descended from the height and re- 
traced his steps homeward. Kitty gladly preceded him, 
and some time after the sun had set they regained the 
Reef. About a mile short of home, Mark passed all the 
hogs, snugly deposited in a bed of mud, where they had 
ensconced themselves for the night, as one draws himself 
beneath his blanket. 


V, 


4 




THE CRATER. 


173 


> CHAPTER XIL 

All things in common nature should produce 
Without sweat or endeavor; treason, felony, 

Sword, pike, gun, or need of any engine 
Would I not have; but nature should bring forth 
Of its own kind, all foizen, all abundance 
To feed my innocent people. 

Tempest. 

For the next ten days Mark Woolston did little but 
explore By crossing the channel around the Reef, which 
he had named the Armlet (the young man often talked to 
himself), he reached the sea-wall, and, once there, he made 
a long excursion to the eastward. Pie now walked dry- 
shod over those very reefs among which he had so recently 
sailed in the Bridget, though the ship-channel through 
which he and Bob had brought in the Rancocus still re- 
mained. The two buoys that had marked the narrow pas- 
sage were found high and dry ; and the anchor of the 
ship, that by which she rode after beating over the rocks 
into deep water, was to be seen so near the surface, that 
the stock could be reached by the hand. 

There was little difference of character between the 
newly-made land to windward and that which Mark had 
found in the opposite direction. Large pools or lakes of 
salt water, deposits of mud and sand, some of which were 
of considerable extent and thickness, sounds, creeks, and 
arms of the sea, with here and there a hummock of rock 
that rose fifteen or twenty feet above the face of the main 
body, were the distinguishing peculiarities. For two days 
Mark explored in this direction, or to windward, reaching 
as far by his estimate of the distance, as the place where 
he had borne up in his cruise in the Bridget. Finding a 
great many obstacles in the way, channels, mud, etc., he 
determined, on the afternoon of the second day, to return 


174 


THE CRATER. 


home, get a stock of supplies, and come out in the boat, 
in order to ascertain if he could not now reach the open 
water to windward. 

On the morning of the fourth day after the earthquake, 
and the occurrence of the mighty change that had altered 
the whole face of the scene around him, the young man 
got under way in the Bridget. He shaped his course to 
windward, beating out of the Armlet by a narrow passage, 
that carried him into a reach that stretched away for sev- 
eral miles, to the northward and eastward, in nearly a 
straight line. This passage or sound was about half a 
mile in width, and there was water enough in nearly all 
parts of it to float the largest sized vessel. By this pas- 
sage the poor hermit, small as was his chance of ever seeing 
such an event occur, hoped it might be possible to come to 
the very side of the Reef in a ship. 

When about three leagues from the crater, the Hope 
Channel, as Mark named this long and direct passage, 
divided into two, one trending still more to the northward, 
running nearly due north, indeed, while the other might 
be followed in a southeasterly direction, far as the eye 
could reach. Mark named the rock at the junction Point 
Fork, and chose the latter passage, which appeared the 
most promising, and the wind permitting him to lay 
through it. The Bridget tacked in the Forks, therefore, 
and stood away to the southeast, pretty close to the wind. 
Various other channels communicated with this main pas- 
sage, or the Hope ; and, about noon, Mark tacked into one 
of them, heading about northeast, when trimmed up sharp 
to do so. The water was deep, and at first the passage 
was half a mile in width ; but after standing along it a 
mile or two, it seemed all at once to terminate' in an oval 
basin, that might have been a mile in its largest diameter, 
and which was bounded jto the eastward by a belt of rock 
that rose some twenty feet above the water. The bottom 
of this basin was a clear beautiful sand, and its depth of 
water, on sounding, Mark found was uniformly about eight 
fathoms. A more safe or convenient basin for the anchor- 
age of ships could not have been formed by the art of 


THE CRATER. 175 

man, had there been an entrance to it, and any inducement 
for them to come there. 

Mark had beaten about Oval Plarbor, as he named the 
place, for half an hour, before he was struck by the cir- 
cumstance that the even character of its surface appeared 
to be a little disturbed by a slight undulation which seemed 
to come from its northeastern extremity. Tacking the 
Bridget, he stood in that direction, and on reaching the 
place, found that there was a passage through the rock of 
about a hundred yards in width. The wind permitting, 
the boat shot through this passage, and was immediately 
heaving and setting in the long swells of the open ocean. 
At first Mark was startled by the roar of the waves that 
plunged into the caverns of the rocks, and trembled lest 
his boat might be hove up against that hard and iron- 
bound coast, where one toss would shatter his little craft 
into splinters. Too steady a seaman, however, to abandon 
his object unnecessarily, he stood on, and soon found he 
could weather the rocks under his lee, tacking in time. 
After two or three short stretches were made, Mark found 
himself half a mile to windward of a long line or coast 
of dark rock, that rose from twenty to twenty-five feet 
above the level of the water, and beyond all question in 
the open ocean. Pie hove-to to sound, and let forty fath- 
oms of line out without reaching bottom. But every- 
where to leeward of him was land or rock ; while every- 
where to windward, as well as ahead and astern, it was 
clear water. This, then, was the eastern limit of the old 
shoals, now converted into dry land. Here the Rancocus 
had, unknown to her officers, first run into the midst of 
these shoals, by which she had ever since been envi- 
roned. 

It was not easy to compute the precise distance from 
the outlet or inlet of Oval Harbor to the crater. Mark 
thought it might be five-and-twenty miles, in a straight 
line, judging equally by the eye and the time he had been 
in running it. The Summit was not to be seen, however, 
any more than the masts of the ship ; though the distant 
Beak, and the column of dark smoke, remained in sight. 


THE CRATER. 


176 

as eternal land-marks. The ypung man might have been 
an hour in the open sea, gradually hauling off the land, in 
order to keep clear of the coast, when he bethought him 
of returning. It. required a good deal of nerve to run 
in towards those rocks, under all the circumstances of the 
case. The wind blew fresh, so much indeed as to induce 
Mai’k to reef, but there must always be a heavy swell roll- 
ing in upon that iron-bound shore. The shock of such 
waves expending their whole force on perpendicular rocks 
may be imagined better than it can be described. There 
was an undying roar all along that coast, produced by 
these incessant collisions of the elements ; and occasion- 
ally, when a sea entered a cavern, in a way suddenly to 
expel its air, the sound resembled that which some huge 
animal might be supposed to utter in its agony, or its an- 
ger. Of course, the spray was flying high, and the entire 
line of black rocks was white with its particles. 

Mark had unwittingly omitted to take any land-marks 
to his inlet or strait. He had no other means of finding it, 
therefore, than to discover a spot in which the line of 
white was broken. This inlet, however, he remembered 
did not open at right angles to the coast, but obliquely; 
and it was very possible to be within a hundred yards of 
it and not see it. This fact our young sailor was not 
long in ascertaining ; for standing in towards the point 
where he expected to find the entrance, and going as close 
to the shore as he dared, he could see nothing of the de- 
sired passage. For an hour did he search, passing to 
and fro, but without success. The idea of remaining out 
in the open sea for the night, and to windward of such an 
inhospitable coast, was anything but pleasant to Mark, and 
he determined to stand to the northward now, while it was 
day, and look for some other entrance. 

For four hours did Mark Woolston run alon^ those 

o 

dark rocks, whitened only by the spray of the wide ocean, 
without perceiving a point at which a boat might even 
land. As he was now running off the wind, and had turned 
out his reef, he supposed he must have gone at least live- 
aud-twenty miles, if not thirty, in that time ; and thus 


THE CRATER. 


177 


had he some means of judging of the extent of liis new 
territories. About five in the afternoon a cape or head- 
land was reached, when the coast suddenly trended to the 
westward. This, then, was the northeastern angle of the 
entire formation, and Mark named it Cape Northeast. 
The boat was now jibed, and ran off west, a little north- 
erly, for another hour, keeping quite close in to the coast, 
which was no longer dangerous as soon as the Cape was 
doubled. The seas broke upon the rocks, as a matter of 
course ; but there being a lee, it was only under the power 
of the ceaseless undulations of the ocean. Even the force 
of the wind was now much less felt, the Bridget carrying 
whole sail when hauled up, as Mark placed her several 
times, in order to examine apparent inlets. 

It was getting to be too late to think of reaching home 
that night, for running in those unknown channels after 
dark was not a desirable course for an explorer to adopt. 
Our young man, therefore, limited his search to some place 
where he might lie until the return of light. It is true, 
the lee formed by the rocks was now such as to enable 
him to remain outside, with safety, until morning ; but he 
preferred greatly to get within the islands, if possible, to 
trusting himself, while asleep, to the mercy of the open 
ocean. Just as the sun was setting, leaving the evening 
cool and pleasant, after the warmth of an exceedingly hot 
day, the boat doubled a piece of low headland ; and Mark 
had half made up his mind to get under its lee, and heave 
a grapnel ashore, in order to ride by his cable during the 
approaching night, when an opening in the coast greeted 
his eyes. It was just as he doubled the cape. This open- 
ing appeared to be a quarter of a mile in width, and it 
had perfectly smooth water a half-gunshot within its 
moutL The helm was put down, the sheets hauled aft, 
and the Bridget luffed into this creek, estuary, sound, or 
harbor, whichever it might prove to be. For twenty 
minutes did Mark stand on through this passage, when sud- 
denly it expanded into a basin or bay of considerable ex- 
tent. This was at a distance of about a league within the 

coast. This bay was a league long, and half a league in 
12 


178 


THE CRATER. 


width, the boat entering it close to its weather side. A long 
and wide sandy beach offered on that side, and the young 
man stood along it a short distance, until the sight of 
a spring induced him to put his helm down. The boat 
luffed short round, and came gently upon the beach. 
A grapnel was thrown on the sands,* and Mark leaped 
ashore. 

The water proved to be sweet, cool, and every way de- 
licious. This was at least the twentieth spring which had 
been seen that day, though it was the first of which the 
waters had been tasted. This new-born beach had every 
appearance of having been exposed to the air a thousand 
years. The sand was perfectly clean, and of a bright 
golden color, and it was well strewed with shells* of the 
most magnificent colors and size. The odor of their 
late tenants alone proclaimed the fact of their recent 
shipwreck. This, however, was an evil that a single 
month would repair ; and our sailor determined to make 
another voyage to this bay, which he called Shell Bay, in 
order to procure some of its treasures. It was true he 
could not place them before the delighted eyes of Bridget, 
but he might arrange them in his cabin, and fancy that 
she was gazing at their beauties. After drinking at the 
spring and supping on the rocks above, Mark arranged a 
mattress, provided for that purpose, in the boat, and went 
to sleep. 

Early next morning the Bridget was again under way 
but not until her owner had both bathed and broken his 
fast. Bathe he did every morning throughout the year, 
and occasionally at night also. A day of exertion usually 
ended with a bath, as did a night of sweet repose also. In 
all these respects no one could be more fortunate. From 
the first, food had been abundant ; and now he possessed 
it in superfluity, including the wants of all dependent on 
him. Of clothes, also, he had an inexhaustible" supply, a 
small portion of the cargo consisting of coarse cotton 
jackets and trousers, with which to purchase sandal-wood. 
To these means, delicious water was now added i;i in- 
exhaustible quantities. The late changes had given to 


THE CRATER, 


179 


Mark’s possession territory sufficient to occupy him montlis, 
even in exploring it thoroughly, as it was his purpose to 
do. God was there, also, as he is everywhere. ' This 
our secluded man found to be a most precious consola- 
tion. Again and again, each day, was he now in the 
practice of communing in spirit, directly with his Crea- 
tor ; not in cold and unmeaning forms and commonplaces, 
but with such yearning of the soul, and such feelings of 
love and reverence, as an active and living faith can alone, 
by the aid of the Divine Spirit, awaken in the human 
breast. 

After crossing Shell Bay, the Bridget continued on for 
a couple of hours, running south, westerly, through a pas- 
sage of a good width, until it met another channel, at a 
point which Mark at once recognized as the Forks. When' 
at Point Fork, he had only to follow the track he had 
come the previous day, in order to arrive at the Reef. 
The crater could be seen from the Forks, and there was 
consequently a beacon in sight, to direct the adventurer, 
"had he wanted such assistance ; which he did not, how- 
ever, since he now recognized objects perfectly well as he 
advanced. About ten o’clock he ran alongside of the ship, 
where he found everything as he had left it. Lighting the 
fire, he put on food sufficient to last him for another cruise, 
and then went up into the cross-trees in order to take a 
better look than he had yet obtained, of the state of things 
to the southward. 

By this time the vast murky cloud that had so long over- 
hung the new outlet of the volcano, was dispersed. It was 
succeeded by one of ordinary size, in which the thread of 
smoke thaf arose from 'the crater, terminated. Of course 
the surrounding atmosphere was clear, and nothing but 
distance obstructed the view. The Peak was indeed a 
sublime sight, issuing, as it did, from the ocean without any 
relief. Mark now began to think he had miscalculated its 
height, and that it might be two thousand feet, instead of 
one, above the water. There it was, in all its glory, blue 
and misty, but ragged and noble. The crater was clearly 
many miles beyond it, the young man being satisfied, after 


180 


THE CRATLR. 


this look, that he had not yet seen its summit. He also 
increased his distunce from Vulcan’s Peak, as he named 
the mountain, to ten leagues, at least. After sitting in the 
cross-trees for fully an hour, gazing at this height with as 
much pleasure as the connoisseur ever studied picture, or 
statue, the young man determined to attempt a voyage to 
that place, in the Bridget. To him, such an expedition had 
the charm of the novelty and change which a journey from 
country to town could bring to the wearied worldling, who 
sighed for the enjoyment of his old haunts, after a season 
passed in the ennui of his country-house. It is true, great 
novelties had been presented to our solitary youth, by the 
great changes wrought immediately in his neighborhood, 
and they had now kept him for a week in a condition of 
high excitement ; but nothing they presented could equal 
the interest he felt in that distant mountain, which had 
arisen so suddenly in a horizon that he had been accus- 
tcyned to see bare of any object but clouds, for near 
eighteen months. 

That afternoon Mark made all his preparations for a 
voyage that he felt might be one of great moment to him. 
All the symptoms of convulsions in the earth, however, 
had ceased; even the rumbling sounds which he had heard, 
or imagined, in the stillness of the night, being no longer 
audible. From that source, therefore, he had no great 
apprehensions of danger ; though there was a sort of dread 
majesty in the exhibition of the power of nature that he 
had so lately witnessed, which disposed him to approach 
the scene of its greatest effort with secret awe. So much 
did he think of the morrow and its possible consequences, 
that he did not get asleep for two or three hours, though 
he awoke in the morning unconscious of any want of. rest. 
An hour later, he was in his boat, and under way. 

Mark had now to steer in an entirely new direction, be- 
lieving, from what he had seen while aloft the day before, 
that he could make his way out into the open ocean by 
proceeding a due south course. In order to do this, and 
to get into the most promising-looking channel in that 
direction, he was obliged to pass through the narrow strait 


THE CRATER. 


181 


that se}3arate(l 'the Reef from the large range of rock over 
wliich he had roamed the day succeeding the earthquake. 
Of course, the bridge was removed, in order to allow the 
boat’s mast to pass ; but for this Mark did not care. He 
had seen his stock the previous evening, and saw that it 
wanted for nothing. Even the fowls had gone across to 
the new territory, on exploring expeditions ; and Kitty 
herself had left her sweet pastures on the Summit, to see 
of what the world was made beyond her old range. It is 
true she had made one journey in that quarter, in the com- 
pany of her master; but one journey no more satisfied her 
than it would have satisfied the curiosity of any other fe- 
male. 

After passing the bridge, the boat entered a long, narrow 
reach, that extended at least two leagues, in nearly a direct 
line towards Vulcan’s Peak. As it approached the end of 
this piece of water, Mark saw that he must enter a bay of 
considerable extent ; one, indeed, that was much larger 
than any he had yet seen in his island, or, to speak more 
accurately, his group of islands. On one side of this bay 
appeared a large piece of level land, or a plain, which 
Mark supposed might cover one or two thousand acres. 
Its color was so different from anything he had yet seen, 
that our young man was induced to land, and to walk a 
short distance to examine it. On reaching its margin, it 
was found to be a very shallow basin, of which the bottom 
was mud, with a foot or two of salt water still remaining, 
and in which sea-weed, some ten or twelve inches in thick- 
ness, was floating. It was almost possible for Mark to 
walk on this weed, the green appearance of which induced 
him to name the place the Prairie. Such a collection of 
weed could only have been owing to the currents, which 
must have brought it into this basin, where it was probably 
retained even previously to the late eruption. The pres- 
ence of the deposit of mud, as well as the height of the 
surrounding rocks, many of which were doubtless out of 
water previously to the phenomenon, went to corroborate 
this opinion. 

After working her way through a great many channels, 


182 


THE CRATER. 


some wide and some narrow, some true and some false, 
the Bridget reached the southern verge of the group, about 
noon. Mark then supposed himself to be quite twenty 
miles from the Beef, and the Peak appeared very little 
nearer than when he left it. This startled him on the 
score of distance ; and, after meditating on all his chances, 
the young man determined to pass the remainder of that 
day where he was, in order to put to sea with as much 
daylight before him as possible. He desired also to ex- 
plore the coast and islands in that vicinity, in order to 
complete his survey of the cluster. He looked for a con- 
venient place to anchor his boat, accordingly, ate his din- 
ner, and set out on foot to explore, armed as usual with a 
fowling-piece. 

In the first place, an outlet to the sea very different from 
that on the eastern side of the group, was found here, on 
its southern. The channel opened into a bay of some size, 
with an arm of rock reaching well off on the weather side, 
so that no broken water was encountered in passing into 
or out of it, provided one kept sufficiently clear of the 
point itself. As there was abundance of room, Mark saw 
he should have no difficulty in getting out into open water, 
here, or in getting back again. What was more, the arm, 
or promontory of rock just mentioned, had a hummock 
near a hundred feet in height on its extremity, that an- 
swered admirably for a land-mark. Most of this hummock 
must have been above water previously to the late erup- 
tion, though it appeared to our explorer, that all the visible 
land, as he proceeded south, was lifted higher and on a 
gradually-increasing scale, as if the eruption had exerted 
its force at a certain point, the new crater for instance, 
and raised the earth to tlie northward of that point, on an 
inclined plane. This might account, in a measure, for the 
altitude of the Peak, which was near the great crevice that 
must have been left somewhere, unless materials on its op- 
posite side had fallen to fill it up again. Most of these 
views were merely speculative, though the fact of the greater 
elevation of all the rocks, in this part of the group, over 
those farther north, was beyond dispute. Thus the coast, 


THE CRATER. 


183 


here, was generally fifty or eighty feet high ; wliereas, at 
the Reef, even now, the surface of the common rock was 
not much more than twenty feet above the water. The 
rise seemed to be gradual, moreover, which certainly fa- 
vored this theory. 

As a great deal of sand and mud had been brought up 
by the eruption, there was no want of fresh water. Mark 
found even a little brook, of as perfectly sweet a stream as 
he had ever tasted in America, running into the little har- 
bor where he had secured the boat. He followed this 
stream two miles, ere he reached its source or sources ; 
for it came from at least a dozen copious springs, that 
poured their tribute from a bed of clean sand several miles 
in length, and which had every sign of having been bare 
for ages. In saying this, however, it is not to be supposed 
that the signs, as to time, were very apparent anywhere. 
Lava, known to have been ejected from the bowels of the 
earth thousands of years, has just as fresh an appearance, 
to the ordinary observer, as that which w'as thrown out ten 
years ago ; and, had it not been for the deposits of moist 
mud, the remains of fish, sea-weed that was still unde- 
cayed, pools of salt water, and a few other peculiarities of 
the same sort, Mark would have been puzzled to find any 
difference between the rocks recently thrown up, and those 
which were formerly exposed to the air. Even the mud 
was fast changing its appearance, cracking and drying 
under the sun of the tropics. In a month or two, should 
as much rain as usual fall, it was probable the sea-weed 
would be far gone in decay. 

It was still early when our adventurer kneeled on the 
sand, near his boat, to hold his last direct communication 
with his Creator, ere he slept. Those communications 
were now quite frequent with Mark, it being no unusual 
thing for him to hold them when sailing in his boat, on the 
deck of the ship, or in the soft salubrious air of the Sum- 
mit. He slept none the less soundly for having com- 
mended his soul to God, asking support against tempta- 
tions, and forgiveness for past sins. These prayers were 
usually very short. More than half the time they were 


184 


THE CRATER. 


expressed in the compendious and beautiful words given 
to man by Christ himself, the model and substance of all 
petitions of this nature. But the words were devoutly ut- 
tered, the heart keeping even pace with them, and the soul 
fully submitting to their influence. 

Mark arose, next morning, two hours before the light 
appeared, and at once left the group. Time was now im- 
portant to him ; for, while he anticipated the possibility of 
remaining under the lee of the mountain during the suc- 
ceeding night, he also anticipated the possibility of being 
compelled to return. In a favorable time, with the wind 
a little free, five knots in the hour was about tlie maximum 
of the boat’s rate of sailing, though it was affected by the 
greater or less height of the sea that was on. When the 
waves ran heavily, the Bridgets low sails got becalmed in 
the troughs, and she consequently lost much of her way. 
On the whole, however, five knots might be set down as 
her average speed, under the pressure of the ordinary 
trades, and with whole canvas, and a little off the wind. 
Close-hauled, she scarcely made more than tliree ; while, 
with the wind on the quarter, she often went seven, espe- 
cially in smooth water. 

The course steered was about a point to the westward 
of south, the boat running altogether by compass, for the 
first two hours. At the end of that time day returned, 
and the dark, frowning Peak itself became visible. The 
sun had no sooner risen, than Mark felt satisfied with his 
boat’s performance. Objects began to come out of the 
mass of the mountain, which no longer appeared a pile of 
dark outline, without detail. He expected this, and was 
even disappointed that his eyes could not command more, 
for he now saw that he had materially underrated the dis- 
tance between the crater and the Peak, which must be 
nearer sixty than fifty miles. The channel between the 
group and this isolated mass was, at least, twelve leagues 
in width. These twelve leagues were now to be run, and 
our young navigator thought he had made fully three of 
them, when light returned. 

From that moment every mile made a sensible difference 


THE CRATER 


185 


in tlie face of the mountain. Light and shadow first be- 
came visible ; then ravines, cliffs, and colors, came into the 
view. Each league that he advanced increased Mark’s ad- 
miration and awe ; and by the time that the boat was on 
the last of those leagues which had appeared so long, he 
began to have a more accurate idea of the sublime nature 
of the phenomenon that had been wrought so near him. 
Vulcan’s Peak, as an island, could not be less than eight 
or nine miles in length, though its breadth did not much 
exceed two. Running north and south, it offered its nar- 
row side to the group of the crater, which had deceived 
its solitary observer. Yes ! of the millions on earth, Mark 
Woolston, alone, had been so situated as to become a wit- 
ness of this grand display of the powers of the elements. 
Yet, what was this in comparison with the thousand vast 
globes that were rolling about in space, objects so familiar 
as to be seen daily and nightly without raising a thought, 
in the minds of many, from the created to the creator ? 
Even these globes come and go, and men remain indifferent 
to the mighty change ! 

The wind had been fresh in crossing the strait, and 
Mark was not sorry when his pigmy boat came under the 
shadow of the vast cliffs which formed the northern ex- 
tremity of the Peak. When still a mile distant, he thought 
he was close on the rocks ; nor did he get a perfectly true 
idea of the scale on which this rare mountain had been 
formed until running along at its base, within a hundred 
yards of its rocks. Coming in to leeward, as a matter of 
course, Mark found comparatively smooth water, though 
the unceasing heaving and setting of the ocean rendered it 
a little hazardous to go nearer to the shore. For some 
time our explorer was fearful he should not be able to land 
at all ; and he was actually thinking of putting about, to 
make the best of his way back, while light remained to do 
so, when he came off a place that seemed fitted by ai’t, 
rather than by nature, to meet his wishes. A narrov^^ 
opening appeared between two cliffs, of about equal height, 
or some hundred feet in elevation, one of which extended 
farther into the ocean than its neighbor. The water being 


186 


' THE CRATER. 


quite smooth in this inlet, Mark ventured to enter it, the 
wind favoring his advance. On passing this gate-way he 
found himself nearly becalmed, in a basin that might be a 
hundred yards in diameter, which was not only surrounded 
by a sandy beach, but which had also a sandy bottom. 
The water was several fathoms deep, and it was very easy 
to run the bows of the boat anywhere on the beach. This 
was done, the sails were furled, and Mark sprang ashore, 
taking the grapnel with him. Like Columbus, he knelt on 
the sands, and returned his thanks to God. 

Not only did a ravine open from this basin, winding its 
way up the entire ascent, but a copious stream of water 
. ran through it, foaming and roaring amid its glens. At 
first, Mark supposed this was sea-water, still finding its 
way from some lake on the Peak ; but, on tasting it, he 
found it was perfectly sweet. Provided with his gun, and 
carrying his pack, our young man entered this ravine, and 
following the course of the brook, he at once commenced 
an ascent. The route was 'difficult only in the labor of 
^ moving upwards, and by no means as difficult in that as 
he had expected to find it. It was, nevertheless, fortunate 
that this climbing was to be done in the shade, the sun 
seldom penetrating into those cool and somewhat damp 
crevices through which the brook found its way. 

Notwithstanding his great activity, Mark Woolston was 
just an hour in ascending to the Peak. In no place had 
he found the path difficult, though almost always upward ; 
but he believed he had walked more than two miles before 
he came out on level ground. When he had got up about 
three fourths of the way, the appearances of things around 
him suddenly changed. Although the rock itself looked 
no older than that below, it had occasionally, a covering 
that clearly could never have emerged from the sea within 
the last few days. From that point everything denoted an 
older existence in the air, from which our young man in- 
ferred that the summit of Vulcan’s Peak had been an island 
long prior to the late eruption. Every foot he advanced 
confirmed this opinion, and the conclusion was that the 
ancient island had lain too low to be visible to one on the 
Reef. 


THE CRATER. 


187 


An exclamation of delight escaped from onr explorer, 
as he suddenly came out on the broken plain of the Peak. 
It was not absolutely covered, but was richly garnished with 
wood; cocoa-nut, bread-fruits, and other tropical trees; and 
it w’as delightfully verdant with young grasses. The latter 
were still wet with a recent shower that Mark had seen 
pass over the mountain, while standing for the island ; and 
on examining them more closely, the traces of the former 
shower of volcanic ashes were yet to be seen. The warmth 
in the sun, after so sharp a walk, caused the young man 
to plunge into the nearest grove, where he had no diffi- 
culty in helping himself to as many cocoa-nuts, fresh from 
the trees, as a thousand men could have consumed. p]very 
one has heard of the delicious beverage that the milk of 
the cocoa-nut, and of the delicious food that its pulp fur- 

I nishes, when each is taken from the fruit before it hardens. 

, How these trees came there, Mark did not know. The 
common theory is that birds convey the seeds from island 
to island ; though some suppose that the earth contains the 
elements of all vegetation, and that this or that is quick- 
ened, as particular influences are brought to bear by means 
of climate and other agents. 

After resting himself for an hour in that delicious grove, 
Mark began to roam around the plain, to get an idea of its 
beauties and extent. The former were inexhaustible, of- 
fering every variety of landscape, from the bold and mag- 
nificent to the soft and bewitching. There were birds in- 
numerable, of the most brilliant plumage, and some that 
JVIark imagined must be good to eat. In particular did he 
observe an immense number of a v-ery small sort that were 
constantly pecking at a wild fig, of which there was a grove 
of considerable extent. The fig, itself, he did not find as 
palatable as he had hoped, though it was refreshing, and 
served to vary the diet ; but- the bird struck him to be of 
the same kind as the celebrated reed-bird, of the Philadel- 
phia market, which we suppose to be much the same as 
the beccajicki of Italy. Being provided with mustard-seed 
shot, Mark loaded his piece properly, and killed at least 
twenty of these little creatures at one discharge. After 


188 


THE CRATER. 


cleaning them, he struck a light by means of the pan and 
some powder and kindled a fire. Here was wood, too, in 
any quantity, an article of which he had feared in time he 
might be in want, and which he had already begun to hus- 
band, though used only in his simple cookery. Spitting 
half a dozen of the birds, they w^ere soon roasted. At the 
same time he roasted a bunch of plantain, and, being pro- 
vided with pepper and salt in his pack, as well as with 
some pilot-bread, and a pint-bottle of rum, we are almost 
ashamed to relate how our young explorer dined. Nothing 
w'as wanting to such a meal but the sweets of social con- 
verse. Mark fancied, as he sat enjoying that solitary re- 
past, so delicious of itself, and which was just enough 
sweetened with toil to render it every way acceptable, that 
he could gladly give up all the rest of the world, for the 
enjoyment of a paradise like that before him, with Bridget 
for his Eve. 

The elevation of the mountain rendered the air far more' 
grateful and cool than he was accustomed to find it, at 
mid-summer, down on the Reef, and the young man was 
in a sort of gentle intoxication while breathing it. Then 
it was that he most longed for a companion, though little 
did he imagine how near he was to some of his species at 
that very rnoment ; and how soon that, the dearest wish of 
his heart, was to be met by an adventure altogether so un- 
expected to him, that we must commence a new chapter,^ 
in order to relate it. 


THE CRATER. 


189 


CHAPTER XIIL 

The merry homes of England ! 

Around their hearths by night, 

What gladsome looks of household love 
Meet in the ruddy light ! 

There woman’s voice flows forth in song, 

Or childhood’s tale is told, 

Or lips move tunefully along 
Some glorious page of old. 

Mrs. Hemans. 

The Peak, or highest part of the island, was at its 
northern extremity, and within two miles of the grove in 
which Mark Woolston had eaten his dinner. Unlike most 
of the plain, it had no woods whatever, but rising some- 
what abruptly to a considerable elevation, it was naked of 
everything but grass. On the Peak itself, there was very 
little of the last even, and it was obvious that it must 
command a full view of the whole plain of the island, as 
well as of the surrounding sea, for a wide distance. Re- 
suming liis pack, our young adventurer, greatly refreshed 
by the delicious repast he had just made, left the pleasant 
grove in which he had first rested, to undertake this some- 
what sharp acclivity. He was not long in effecting it, 
however, standing on the highest point of his new discov- 
ery within an hour after he had commenced its ascent. 

Mere, Mark found all his expectations realized touching 
the character of the view. The whole plain of the island, 
with • the exceptions of the covers made by intervening 
woods, lay spread before him like a map. All its beauties, 
its shades, its fruits, and its verdant glades, were placed 
beneath his ey^ as if purposely to delight him with their 
glories. A more enchanting rural scene tlie young man 
had never beheld, the island having so much the air of 
cultivation and art about it, that he expected, at each in- 


190 


THE CRATER. 


Btaiit, to see bodies of men running across its surface, 
He carried the best glass of the Rancocus with him, in all 
his excursions, not knowing what moment Providence 
might bring a vessel in sight, and he had, it now slung 
from his shoulders. With this glass, therefore, was every 
part of the visible surface of the island swept, in anxious 
and almost alarmed search for the abodes of inhabitants. 
Nothing of this sort, however, could be discovered. The 
island was unquestionably without a human being, our 
young man alone excepted. Nor could he see any trace 
of beast, reptile, or of any animal but birds. Creatures 
gifted with wings had been able to reach that little para- 
dise ; but to all others, since it first arose from the -sea, 
had it probably been unappro, ached, if not unapproachable, 
until that day. It appeared to be the very Elysium of 
Birds ! 

Mark next examined the Peak itself. There was a. vast 
deposit of very ancient guano on it, the washings of which 
for ages, had doubtless largely contributed to the great fer- 
tility of the plain below. , A stream of more size than 
one would expect to find on so small an island, meandered 
through the plain, and could be traced to a very copious 
spring that burst from the earth at the base of the peak. 
Ample as this spring was, however, it could never of itself 
have supplied the water of the brook or rivulet, which 
received the contributions of some fifty other springs, that 
reached it in rills, as it wound its way down the gently in- 
clined plane of the island. At one point, about two 
leagues from the Peak, there was actually a little lake vis- 
ible, and Mark could even trace its outlet, winding its way 
beyond it. He supposed that the surplus tumbled into the 
sea in a cascade. 

It will readily be imagined that our young man turned 
his glass to the northward, in search of the group he had 
left that morning, with a most lively interest. It was easy 
enough to see it from the great elevation at which he was 
now placed. There it lay, stretched far and wide, extend- 
ing nearly a degree of latitude, north and south, and an- 
other of longitude, east and west, most truly resembling a 


THE CRATER. 


191 


vast (Liik-looking map, spread upon the face of the waters 
for his special examination. It reminded Mark of the 
moon, with its ragged outlines of imaginary continents, as 
seen by the naked eye, while the island he was now on, 
bore a fancied resemblance to the same object viewed 
through a telescope ; not that it had the look of molten 
silver which is observed in the earth’s satellite, but that it 
appeared gloriously bright and brilliant. Mark could 
easily see many of the sheets of water that were to be 
found among the rocks, though his naked eye could distin- 
guish neither crater nor ship. By the aid of the glass, 
however, the first was to be seen, though the distance was 
too great to leave the poor deserted Rancocus visible, even 
with the assistance of magnifying-glasses. 

When he had taken a good look at his old possessions, 
Mark made a sweep of the horizon with the glass, in order 
to ascertain if any other land were visible, from the great 
elevation on which he now stood. While arranging the 
focus of the instrument, an object first met his eye that 
caused his heart almost to leap into his mouth. Land was 
looming up, in the western board, so distinctly as to admit 
of no cavil about its presence. It was an island, mount- 
ainous, and Mark supposed it must be fully a hundred 
miles distant. Still it was land, and strange land, and 
might prove to be the abode of human beings. The glass 
told him very little more than his eye, though he could 
discern a mountainous form through it, and saw that it 
was an island of no great size. Beyond this mountain, 
again, the young man fancied that he could detect the haze 
of more land ; but if he did, it was too low, too distant, 
and too indistinct, to be certain of it. It is not easy to 
give a clear idea of the tumult of feeling with which Mark 
Woolston beheld these unknown regions, though it might 
be best compared with the emotions of the astronomer 
who discovers a new planet. It would scarce exceed the 
truth to say that he regarded that dim, blue mountain, 
which arose in the midst of a watery waste, with as much 
of admiration, mysterious awe and gratification united, as 
Herscbel may have been supposed to feel when he estab- 


192 


THE CRATER. 


Ushed the -character of Uranus. It was fully an hour be- j 
fore our hermit could turn his eyes in any other direction. 

And when our young mariner did look aside, it was 
more with the intention of relieving eyes that had grown 
dim with gazing, than of not returning to the same objects 
again, as soon as restored to their power. It was while 
walking to and fro on the Peak, with this intent, that a 
new subject of interest caused him almost to leap into the 
air, and to shout aloud. He saw a sail! For the fir it 
time since Betts disappeared from his anxious looks, his 
eyes now surely rested on a vessel. What was more, it i 
was quite near the island he was on, and seemed to be ) 
beating up to get under its lee. It appeared but a speck 
on the blue waves of the ocean, seen from that height, it 
is true ; but Mark was too well practiced in his craft to be 
mistaken. It was a vessel, under more or less canvas, 
how much he could not then tell, or even see — but it was 
most decidedly a vessel. Mark’s limbs trembled so much 
that he was compelled to throw himself upon the earth to 
find the support he wanted. There he lay 'several min- 
utes, mentally returning thanks to God for this unexpected 
favor ; and when his strength revived, these signs of grat- 
itude were renewed on his knees. Then he arose, almost 
in terror lest the vessel should have disappeared, or it 
should turn out that he was the subject of a cruel illu- 
sion. 

There was no error. There was the little white speck, 
and he leveled the glass to get a better look at it. An 
exclamation now clearly broke from his lips, and for a 
minute or two the young man actually appeared to be out 
of his senses. “ The pinnace,” “ the Neshamony,” how- 
ever, wqre words that escaped him, and, had there been a 
witness, might have given an insight into this extraordi- 
nary conduct. Mark had, in fact, ascertained that the sail 
beneath the Peak was no other than the little craft that 
had been swept away, as already described, with Betts in 
it. Fourteen months had elapsed since that occurrence, 
and here it was again, seemingly endeavoring to return to 
the place where it had been launched ! Mark adopted 


THE CRATER. 


m 

perhaps the best expedient in his power to attract atten- 
tion to himself, and to let his presence be known. He 
fired both barrels of his fowling-piece, and repeated the 
discharges several times, or until a flag was shown on 
board the sloop, which was now just beneath the cliff, a 
certain sign that he had succeeded. A musket was also 
fired from the vessel. 

Our young man rather flew than ran to the ravine, down 
which he went at a pace that several times placed his neck 
in jeopardy. It was a very different thing to descend from 
ascending such a mountain. In less than a. quarter of an 
hour the half-distracted hermit was in his boat, nearly crazy 
with the apprehension that he might yet not meet with his. 
friend ; for, that it was Bob looking for the Reef and 
himself, he did not now entertain the least doubt. The 
most plausible course for him to adopt was precisely that 
which he followed. He pushed off in the Bridget, making 
sail on the boat, and getting out of the cove in the shortest 
time he could. On quitting his little haven, and coming out 
clear of all the rocks, another shout burst out of his very 
soul, when he saw the Neshamony, beyond all cavil, within 
a hundred fathoms of him, running along the shore in 
search of a place to land. That shout was returned, and 
Mark and Bob recognized each other at the next instant 
As for the last, he just off tarpaulin, and gave three hearty 
cheers, while the former sank on a seat, literally unable to 
stand. The sheet of the sail got away from him, nor could 
he be said to know what he was about, until some little 
time after he was in the arms of his friend, and on board 
the j)innace. 

It was half an hour before Mark was master of himself 
again. At length tears relieved him; nor was he ashamed 
to indulge in them, when he saw his old companion not 
only alive and well, but restored to him. He perceived 
another in the boat ; but as he was of a dark skin, he 
naturally inferred this second person was a native of some 
neighboring island where Bob had been, and who had 
consented to come with him in this, his search after the 
shipwrecked mariner. At length Bob began to converse. 

13 


194 


THE CRATER. 


“Well, Mr. Mark, the sight of you is the jDleasaiitest 
prospect that has met my eyes this many a day,” exclaimed 
the honest fellow. “It was with fear and trembling that 
I set out on the search, and little did I hope to fall in with 
you so early in the cruise.” 

“ Thank you, thank you. Bob, and God be praised for 
this great mercy! You have been to some other island, I 
see, by your companion ; but the miraculous part of all is, 
that you should find your way back to the Reef, since you 
are no navigator.” 

“ The Reef I If this here mountain is the Reef, the 
country has greatly altered since I left it,” answered Bob. 
Mark then briefly explained the great change that had 
actually occurred, and told his own story touching his boat 
and his late voyages of discovery. Betts listened with the 
greatest attention, casting occasional glances upward at the 
immense mass that had been so suddenly lifted out of the 
sea, as well as turning his head to regard the smoke of the 
more distant volcano. 

“ Well, this explains our ’arthquake,” he answered, as 
soon as Mark was done. “ I must have been as good as a 
hundred and fifty leagues from this very spot at the time 
you mention, and we had tremblings there that would 
scarce let a body stand on his feet. A ship came in two 
days arterwards, that must have been a hundred leagues 
farther to the nor’ard when it happened, and her people 
reported that they thought heaven and ’arth was a coming 
together, out there' in open water.” 

“ It has been a mighty earthquake — must have been, to 
have wrought these vast changes ; though I had supposed 
that Providence had confined a knowledge of its existence 
to myself. But, you spoke of a ship. Bob — surely we are 
not in the neighborhood of vessels.” 

“ Sartain ; but I may as well tell you my adventures at 
once, Mr. Mark ; though I own I should like to land first, 
as it is a long story, and take a look at this island that you 
praise so much, and taste them reed-birds of which you 
give so good an account. I’m Jarsey-born and bred, and 
know what the little things be.” 


THE CRATER. 


195 


Mark was dying to hear Bob’s story, more especially 
since he understood a ship was connected with it, but he 
could not refuse Irs friend’s demand for sweet water and 
a dinner. The entrance of the cove was quite near, and 
the boats entered that harbor and were secured; after 
which the three men commenced the ascent, Mark picking 
up by the way the spy-glass, fowling-piece, and othei- arti- 
cles that he had dropped in the haste of his descent. While 
going up this sharp acclivity, but little was said ; but when 
they reached the summit, or the plain rather, exclamations 
of delight burst from the mouths of both of Mark’s com- 
panions. To the young man’s great surprise, those which 
came from Bob’s darkskinned associate were in English, 
as well as those which came from Bob himself. This in- 
duced him to take a good look at the man, when he discov- 
ered a face that he knew ! 

“ How is this. Bob ? ” cried Mark, almost gasping for 
breath, “ whom have you here? Is not this Socrates?” 

“ Aye, aye, sir ; that’s Soc ; and Dido, his wife, is within 
a hundred miles of you.” 

This answer, simple as it was, nearly overcame our 
young man again. Socrates and Dido had been the slaves 
of Bridget, when he left home; a part of the estate she had 
received from her grandmother. They .dwelt in the house 
with her, and uniformly called her mistress. Mark knew 
them both very well, as a matter of course; and Dido, with 
the archness of a favorite domestic, was often in the habit 
of calling him her “ young master.” A flood of expec- 
tations, conjectures, and apprehensions came over our hero, 
and he refrained from putting any questions immediately, 
• out of pure astonishment. He was almost afraid uideed 
to ask any. 

Nearly unconscious of what he was about, he led the 
way to the grove where he had dined two or three hours 
before, and where the remainder of the reed-birds were 
suspended from the branch of a tree. The embers of the 
fire were ready, and in a few minutes Socrates handed 
Betts his dinner. 

Bob ate and drank heartily. He loved a tin-pot of rum 


196 


THE CRATER. 


and water, or grog, as it used to be called — though even 
the word is getting to be obsolete in these temperance i 
times — and he liked good eating. It was not epicurism, i 
however, or a love of the stomach, that induced him to 
defer his explanations on the present occasion. He saw 
that Mark must hear what he had to relate gradually, and 
was not sorry that the recognition of the negro had pre- 
pared him to expect something wonderful. Wonderful it 
was, indeed ; and at last Betts, having finished his dinner, 
and given half a dozen preparatory hints, in order to lessen 
the intensity of his young friend’s feelings, yielded to an 
appeal from the other’s eyes, and commenced his narrative. 
Bob told his story, as a matter of course, with a great deal 
of circumlocution, and in his own language. There was a 
good deal of unnecessary prolixity in it, and some irrelative | 
dicrressions touching currents, and the trades, and the j 
weather ; but, on the whole, it was given intelligibly, and | 
with sufficient brevity for one who devoured every syllable 
he uttered. The reader, however, would most probably 
prefer to hear an abridgment of the tale in our own words. 

When Robert Betts was driven off the Reef, by the 
hurricane of the preceding year, he had no choice but to 
let the Neshamony drive to leeward with him. As soon 
as he could, he got the pinnace before the wind, and, when- 
ever he saw broken water ahead, he endeavored to steer 
clear of it. This he sometimes succeeded in effecting ; ^ 
while at others he passed through it, or over it, at the 
mercy of the tempest. Fortunately the wind had piled up 
the element in such a way as to carry the craft clear of 
the rocks, and in three hours after the Neshamony was 
lifted out of her cradle, she was in the open ocean, to 
leeward of all the dangers. It blew too hard, however, to 
make sail on her, and Bob was obliged to scud until the 
gale broke. Then, indeed, he passed a week in endeavor- 
ing to beat back and rejoin his friend, but without success, 
‘Hosing all he made in the day, while asleep at night.” 
Such, at least, was Bob’s account of his failure to find the 
Reef again ; though Mark thought it probable that he was 
a little out in his reckoning, and did not look in exactly j 
the right place for it. 


THE CRATER. 


197 


At the end of this week high land was made to leeward, 
and Betts ran down for it, in the hope of finding inhab- 
itants. In this last expectation, however, he did not suc- 
ceed. It was a volcanic mountain, of a good many re- 
sources, and of a character not unlike that of Vulcan’s 
Peak, but entirely unpeopled. He named it after his old 
ship, and passed several days on it. On describing its 
appearance, and its bearings from the place where they then 
were, Mark had no doubt it was the island that was visible 
from the Peak near them, and at which he had been gazing 
that very afternoon, for fully an hour, with longing eyes. 
On describing its form to Bob, the latter coincided in this 
opinion, which was in "fact the true one. 

From the highest point of Rancocus Island, land was 
to be seen to the northward and westward, and Bob now 
determined to make the best of his way in that direction, 
in the hope of falling in with some vessel after sandal-wood 
or beche-de-mer^He fell in with a group of low islands, 
of a coral formation, about a hundred leagues from his vol- 
canic mountain, and on them he found inhabitants. These 
people were accustomed to see white men, and turned out 
to be exceedingly mild and just. It is probable that they 
connected the sudden appearance of a vessel like the Ne- 
sharaony, having but one man in it, with some miraculous 
interposition of their gods, for they paid Bob the highest 
honors, and when he landed, solemnly tabooed his sloop. 
Bob was a long-headed fellow in the main, and was not 
slow to perceive the advantage of such a ceremony, and 
encouraged it. He also formed a great intimacy with the 
chief, exchanging names and rubbing noses with him. 
This chief was styled Betto, after the exchange, and Bob 
was called Ooroony by the natives. Ooroony stayed a 
month with Betto, when he undertook a voyage with him 
in a large canoe, to another group, that was distant two or 
three hundred miles, still farther to the northward, and 
where Bob was told he should find a ship. This account 
proved to be true, the ship turning out to be a Spaniard, 
from South America, engaged in the pearl fishery, and on 
the eve of sailing for her port. From some misunderstand- 


198 


THE CRATER. 


ing with the Spanish captain, that Bob never comprehended, 
and of course could not explain, and which he did not at- 
tempt to explain, Betto left the group in haste, and without 
taking leave of his new friend, though he sent him a mes- 
sage of apology, one half of which was lost on Bob, in con- 
sequence of not understanding the language. The result 
was, however, to satisfy the latter that his friend was quite 
as sorry to abandon him, as he was glad to get away from 
the Spanish captain. 

This , desertion left Betts no choice between remaining 
on the pearl island, or of sailing in the brig, which went 
to sea next day. He decided to do the last. In due time 
he was landed at Panama, whence he made his way across 
the isthmus, actually reaching Philadelphia in less than 
five months after he was driven off the Reef. In all this 
he was much favored by circumstances ; though an old 
salt, like Bob, will usually make his way where a landsman 
would be brought up. 

The owners of the Rancocus gave up their ship, as soon 
as Betts had told his story, manifesting no disposition to 
send good money after bad. They looked to the under- 
writers, and got Bob to make oath to the loss of the vessel ; 
which said oath, by the way, was the ground-work of a 
lawsuit that lasted Friend Abraham White as long as he 
lived. Bob next sought Bridget with his tale. The young 
wife received the poor fellow with floods of tears, and the 
most eager attention to his story, as indeed did our heroes 
sister Anne. It would seem that Betts’s arrival was most 
opportune. In consequence of the non-arrival of the ship, 
which was then past due two or three months. Doctor 
Yardley had endeavored to persuade his daughter that 
she was a widow, if indeed, as he had of late been some- 
what disposed to maintain, she had ever been legally mar- 
ried at all. The truth was, that the medical war in Bristol 
had broken out afresh, in consequence of certain cases 
that had been transferred to that village, during one of the 
fever-seasons in Philadelphia. Greater cleanliness, and 
the free use of fresh water, appear to have now arrested 
tlie course of this formidable disease, in the northern cities 


THE CRATER 


199 ' 


of America ; but, in that day, it was of very frequent oc- 
currence. Theories prevailed among the doctors concern- 
ing it, which were bitterly antagonistical to each otlier ; 
and Doctor Woolston headed one party in Bucks, while 
Doctor Yardley headed another. Which was right, or 
whether either was right, is more than we shall pretend to 
say, though we think it probable that both were wrong. 
Anne Woolston had been married to a young physician 
but a short time, when this new outbreak concerning yel- 
low fever occurred. Her husband, whose name was Hea- 
ton, unfortunately took the side of this grave question that 
was -opposed to his father-in-law, for a reason no better 
than that he believed in the truth of the opposing theory, 
and this occasioned another breach. Doctor Yardley could 
not, and did not wholly agree with Doctor Heaton, because 
the latter was Doctor Woolston’s son-in-law, and he altered 
his theory a little to create a respectable point of disagree- 
ment ; while Doctor Woolston could not pardon a disaffec- 
tion that took place, as it might be, in the height of a war. 
About this time too, Mrs. Yardley died. 

All these occurrences united to the protracted absence 
of Mark, made Bridget and Anne extremely unhappy. To 
increase this unhappiness. Doctor Yardley took it into his 
head to dispute the legality of a marriage that had been 
solemnized on board a ship. This was an entirely new 
legal crotchet, but the federal government was then young, 
and jurisdictions had not been determined as clearly as has 
since been the case. Had it been the fortune of Doctor 
Yardley to live in these later times, he would not have given 
himself the trouble to put violent constructions on any- 
thing ; but getting a few female friends to go before the 
necessary judge, with tears in their eyes, anything would 
be granted to their requests, very much as a matter of 
course. Failing of this, moreover, there is always the re- 
source of the legislature, whicli will usually pass a law 
taking away a man’s wife, or his children, and sometimes 
his estate, if a pretty pathetic appeal can be made to it, in 
the way of gossip. We have certainly made great progress 
in this country, within the last twenty years ; but whether it 


200 


THE CRATER. 


has been iu a direction towards the summit of human perfec- 
tion, or one downward towards the destruction of all princi- 
ples, the next generation will probably be better able to say 
than this. Even the government is getting to be gossipian. 

In the case of Bridget, however, public sympathy was 
with her, as it always will be with a pretty woman. Never- 
theless, her father had great influence in Bucks County, 
more especially with the federalists and the anti-depletion- 
ists, and it was in his power to give his daughter great 
uneasiness, if not absolutely to divorce her. So violent 
did he become, that he actually caused proceedings to be 
commenced in Bridget’s name, to effect a legal separation, 
taking the grounds that the marriage had never been con- 
summated, that the ceremony had occurred on board a 
ship, that the wife was of tender years, and lastly, that she 
was an heiress. Some persons thought the doctor’s pro- 
ceedings were instigated by the circumstance that another 
relative had just died, and left Bridget five thousand dol- 
lars, which was to be paid to her the day she was eighteen, 
the period of a female’s reaching her majority, according 
to popular notions. The possession of this money, which 
Bridget received and placed in the hands of a friend in 
town, almost made her father frantic for the divorce, or a 
decree against the marriage, he contending there was no 
marriage, and that a divorce was unnecessary. The young 
wife had not abandoned the hope of seeing her husband 
return, all this time, although uneasiness concerning the 
fate of the ship was extending from her owners into the 
families of those who had sailed in her. She wished to 
meet Mark with a STim of money that would enable him, 
at once, to commence life respectably, and place him above 
the necessity of following the seas. 

Betts reached Bristol the very day that a decision was 
made, on a preliminary point, in the case of Yardley versus 
AYoolston, that greatly encouraged the father in his hopes 
of final success, and as greatly terrified his daughter. It 
was, in fact, a mere question of practice, and had no real 
connection with the merits of the matter at issue ; but it 
frightened Bridget and her friend Anne enormously. In 


THE CRATER. 


201 


point of fact, there was not the smallest danger of the mar- 
riage being declared void, should any one oppose the decis- 
ion ; but this was more than any one of the parties then 
knew, and Doctor Yardley seemed so much in earnest, 
that Bridget and Anne got into the most serious state of 
alarm on the subject. To increase their distress, a suitor 
for the hand of the former appeared in the person of a stu- 
dent of medicine, of very fair expectations and who sup- 
ported every one of Doctor Yardley’s theories, in all their 
niceties and distinctions ; and what is more, would have 
supported them, had they been ten times as. untenable as 
they actually were, in reason. 

Had the situation of Doctor Heaton been more pleasant 
than it was, it was probable that the step taken by himself, 
his wife, and Bridget, would never have been thought of. 
But it was highly unpleasant. He was poor, and dependent 
altogether on his practice for a support. Now, it was in 
Doctor Woolston’s power to be of great service to the 
young couple, by introducing the son-in-law to his own 
patients, but this he could not think of doing with a deple- 
tionist ; and John, as Anne affectionately styled her hus- 
band, was left to starve on his system of depletion. Such 
was the state of things when Bob appeared in Bristol, to 
announce to the young wife not only the existence but the 
deserted and lone condition of her husband. The honest 
fellow knew there was something clandestine about the 
marriage, and he used proper precautions not to betray his 
presence to the wrong persons. By means of a little man- 
agement he saw Bridget privately, and told his story. 
As Bob had been present at the wedding, and was known 
to stand high in Mark’s favor, he was believed, quite as a 
matter of course, and questioned in a thousand ways, until 
the poor fellow had not really another syllable to commu- 
nicate. 

The sisters shed floods of tears at the thought of poor 
Mark’s situation. For several days they did little besides 
weep and pray. Then Bridget suddenly dried her tears, 
and announced an intention to go in person to the rescue 
of her husband. Not only was she determined on this, 


202 


TilE CRATER. 


but, as a means of giving a death-blow to ail expectation?! 
of a separation and to the hopes of her new suitor, she was 
resolved to go in a way that should enable her to remain 
on the Reef with Mark, and, if necessary, to pass tlie re- 
mainder of her days there. Bob had given a very glow- 
ing description of the charms of the residence, as well 
as of the climate, the latter quite justly, and declared his 
readiness to accompany this faithful wife in the pursuit of 
her lost partner. The whole affair was communicated to 
Doctor and Mrs. Heaton, who not only came into the 
scheme, but enlisted in its execution in person. The idea 
pleased the former in particular, who had a love of ad- 
venture, and a desire to see other lands, while Anne was 
as ready to follow her husband to the ends of the earth, as 
Bridget was to go to the same place in quest of Mark. In 
a word, the whole project was deliberately formed, and in- 
geniously carried out. 

Doctor Heaton had a brother, a resident of New York, 
and often visited him. Bridget was permitted to accom- 
pany Anne to that place, whither her money was trans- 
ferred to her. A vessel was found that was about to sail 
for the Northwest Coast, and passages were privately en- 
gaged. A great many useful necessaries were laid in, and at 
the proper time letters of leave-taking were sent to Bristol, 
and the whole party sailed. Previously to the embarka- 
tion, Bob appeared to accompany the adventurers. He 
was attended by Socrates, and Dido, and Juno, who had 
stolen away by order of their young mistress, as well as 
by a certain Friend Martha Waters, who had stood up in 
“ meeting ” with Friend Robert Betts, and had become 
“ bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh ; ” and her maiden 
sister, Joan Waters, who was to share their fortunes. In 
a word, Bob had brought an early attachment to the test 
of matrimony. 

So well had the necessary combinations been made, that 
the ship sailed with our adventurers, nine in number, with- 
out meeting with the slightest obstacle. Once at sea, of 
course nothing but that caused by the elements was to 
be anticipated. Cape Horn was doubled in diie time, and 


THE CRATER. 


203 


Doctor Heaton, with all under his care, was landed at 
Panama, just five months, to a day, after leaving New 
York. Here passages vvere taken in the same bring that 
Bob had returned in, which was again bound out, on a 
pearl-fishing voyage. Previously to quitting Panama, how- 
ever, a recruit was engaged in the person of a young 
American shipwright, of the name of Bigelow, who had 
run from his ship a twelve-month before, to marry a 
Spanish girl, and who had become heartily tired of his life 
in Panama. He and his wife and child joined the party, 
engaging to serve the Heatons, for a stipulated sum for the 
terra of two years. 

The voyage from Panama to the pearl islands was a 
long one, but far from unpleasant. Sixty days after leav- 
ing port the adventurers were safely landed, with all their 
effects. These included two cows, with a young bull, two 
yearling colts, several goats obtained in South America, 
and various implements of husbandry that it had not en- 
tered into the views of Friend Abraham White to send to 
even the people of Fejee. With the natives of the pearl 
island, Bob, already known to them and a favorite, had no 
ditficulty in negotiating. He had brought them suitable 
and ample presents, and soon effected an arrangement, by 
which they agreed to transport him and all his stores, the 
animals included, to Betto’s islands, a distance of fully 
three hundred miles. The horses and cows were taken on 
a species of catamaran, or large raft, that is much used in 
those mild seas, and which sail reasonably well a little off 
the wind, and not very badly on. At Betto’s islands a new 
bargain was struck, and the whole party proceeded to 
Rancocus Island, Bob making his land-fall without any 
difficulty, from having observed the course steered in com- 
ing from it. 

At Betto’s group, however, Bob found the Neshamony, 
covered with mats, and tabooed, precisely as he had left 
her to a rope-yarn. Not a human hand had touched any- 
thing belonging to the boat, or a human foot approached 
it, during the whole time of his absence. Ooroony, or 
Betto, was rewarded for his fidelity by the present of -a 


204 


THE CRATER. 


musket and some ammunition, articles that were really of 
;he last importance to his dignity and power. They were 
as good as a standing army to him, actually deciding sum- 
marily a point of disputed authority, that had long been in 
controversy between himself and another chief, in his 
favor. The voyage between Betto’s group and Rancocus 
Island was made in the Neshamony, so far as the human 
portion of the freight was concerned. The catamarans 
and canoes, however, came on with the other animals, and 
all the utensils and stores. ' 

The appearance of Rancocus Island created quite as 
much astonishment among the native mariners, as had that 
of the horses, cows, etc. UntiT they saw it, not one of 
them had any notion of its existence, or of a mountain at 
all. They dwelt themselves on low coral islands, and quite 
beyond the volcanic formation, and a hill was a thing 
scarcely known to them. At this island Heaton and Betts 
deemed it prudent to dismiss their attendants, not wishing 
them to know anything of the Reef, as they were not 
sure what sort of neighbors they might prove, on a longer 
acquaintance. The mountain, however, possessed so many 
advantages over the Reef, as the latter was when Bob left 
it, that the honest fellow frankly admitted its general 
superiority) and suggested the possibility of its becoming 
their permanent i residence. In some respects it was not 
equal to the Reef, as a residence, however, the fishing in 
particular turning out to be infinitely inferior. But it had 
trees and fruits, being very much of the same character 
as Vulcan’s Peak, in this respect. Nevertheless, there was 
no comparison between the two islands as places of res- 
idence, the last having infinitely the most advantages. It 
was larger, had more and better fruits, better water, and 
richer grasses. It had also a more even surface, and a 
more accessible plain. Rancocus Island was higher and 
more broken, and, while it might be a pleasanter place 
of residence than the Reef during the warm months, 
it never could be a place as pleasant as the plain of the 
Peak. 

Bob found it necessary to leave his friends, and most of 


THE CRATER. 


205 


his stores, at Rancocus Island ; Mrs. Heaton becoming a 
mother two days after their arrival at it, and the cows both 
increasing their families in the Course of the same week. 
It was, moreover, impossible to transport everybody and 
everything in the Neshamony, at the same time. As Doc- 
tor Heaton would not leave Anne at such a moment, and 
Bridget was of the same way of thinking, it was thought 
best to improve the time by sending out Betts to explore. 
It will be remembered that he was uncertain where the 
Reef was to be found exactly, -though convinced it was to 
windward, and within a hundred miles of him. While 
roaming over the rocks of Rancocus, however Vulcan’s 
Peak had been seen, as much to Bob’s surprise as to his 
delight. To his surprise, inasmuch as he had no notion 
of the great physical change that had recently been wrought 
by the earthquake, yet could scarce believe he had over- 
looked such an object in his former examinations ; and to 
his delight, because he was now satisfied that the Reef 
must lie to the northward of that strange mountain, and a 
long distance from it, because no such peak had been visi- 
ble from the former when he left it. It was a good place 
to steer for, nevertheless, on this new voyage, since it car- 
ried him a hundred miles to windward ; and when Bob, 
with Socrates for a companion, left Rancocus to look for 
the Reef, he steered as near the course for the Peak as 
the wind would permit. He had made the island from the 
boat, after a run of ten hours ; and, at the same time, he 
made the crater of the active volcano. For the latter, he 
stood that night, actually going within a mile of it, and 
next morning, he altered his course, and beat up for the 
strange island. When Mark first discovered him he had 
nearly made the circuit of Vulcan’s Peak, in a vain en- 
deavor to land, and he would actually have gone on his 
way, had it not been for the firing of the fowling-piece the 
report of which he heard, and the smoke of which he 
saw. 


206 


THE CRATER. 


CHAPTER XIV. 

Compell the hawke to sit, that is unmanned, 

Or make the hound, untaught, to draw the deere, 

Or bring the free, against his will, in band. 

Or move the sad, a pleasant tale to heere. 

Your time is lost, and you no whit the neere ! 

So love ne learnes, of force, the heart to knit: 

She serves but those, that feels sweet fancie’s fit. 

Churchyard. 

We leave the reader to imagine with what feelings Mark 
heard these facts. Bridget, for whom his tenderness was 
unabated ; Bridget, who had been the subject of so many 
of his thoughts since his shipwreck, had shown herself 
worthy to be thus loved, and was now on an island that he 
might easily reach in a run of a few hours ! The young 
man retired farther within the grove, leaving Bob and Soc- 
rates behind, and endeavored to regain his ' composure by 
himself. Before rejoining his companions, he knelt and 
returned thanks to God for this instance of his great kind- 
ness. It was a long time, notwithstanding, before he could 
become accustomed to the idea of having associates, at all. 
Time and again, within the next month or two, did he 
dream that all this fancied happiness was only a dream, 
and awoke under a sense of having been the subject of an 
agreeable illusion. It took months perfectly to restore the 
tone of his mind in this respect, and to bring it back into 
the placid current oi nabitual happiness. The deep sense 
of gratitude to God he never lost ; but the recollection of 
what he had suffered, and from what he had been relieved 
by the Divine mercy, remained indelibly impressed on hio 
heart, and influenced his future life to a degree that in- 
creased the favor a thousand-fold. 

The mode of proceeding was next discussed, in the 
course of doing which Mark communicated to Bob, some- 


THE CRATEK. 


207 


what in detail, the circumstance of the recent convulsion, 
and the changes which it had produced. After talking the 
matter over, both agreed it would be every way desirable 
to bring the whole party, and as much of the property as 
could be easily moved, up to windward at once. Now 
that the natives knew of the existence of Rancocus Island, 
their visits might be often expected, and nothing was more 
uncertain than their policy and friendship. Once on Ran- 
cocus Island the Peak could be seen, and from the Peak 
the Reef was visible. In this way, then, there was every 
reason to believe that the existence of their little colony 
would soon become known, and the property they possessed 
the object of cupidity and violence. Against such conse- 
quences it would be necessary to guard with the strictest 
care, and the first step should be to get everything of value 
up to windward, with the least possible delay. The na- 
tives often went a long distance, in their canoes and on 
their rafts, with the wind abeam, but it was not often they 
undertook to go directly to windward. Then the activity 
of the volcano might be counted on as something in favor 
of the colonists, since those uninstructed children of nature 
would be almost certain to set the phenomenon down to 
the credit of some god, or some demon, neither of whom 
would be likely to permit his special domains to be tres- 
passed on with impunity. 

While Mark and Bob were talking these matters over, 
Socrates had been shooting and cleaning a few dozen more 
of the reed-birds. This provision of the delicacy was 
made, because Betts affirmed no such delicious little creat- 
ure was to be met with on Rancocus, though they were 
to be found on Vulcan’s Peak literally in tens of thousands. 
This difference could be accounted for in no other way, 
than by supposing that some of the birds had originally 
found their way to the latter, favored by accidental circum- 
stances, driven by a hurricane, transported on sea-weed, or 
attending the drift of some plants, and that the same, or 
similar circumstances, had never contributed to carry them 
the additional hundred miles to leeward. 

It was near sunset when the Neshamony left Snug Cove, 


208 


THE CRATER. 


as Mark had named his little haven, at the foot of the ra- 
vine, which, by the way, he called the Stairs, and put to 
sea, on her way to Rancocus Island. The bearings of the 
last had been accurately taken, and our mariners were just 
as able to run by night as by day. It may as well be said 
here, moreover, that the black was a capital boatman, and 
a good fresh-water sailor in general, a proficiency that he 
had acquired in consequence of having been born and 
brought up on the banks of the Delaware. But it would 
have been very possible to run from one of these islands 
to the other, by observing the direction of the wind alone, 
since it blew very steadily in the same quarter, and changes 
in the course were always to be noted by changes in the 
violence or freshness of the breeze. In that quarter of the 
ocean the trades blew with very little variation from the 
southeast, though in general the Pacific Trades are from 
the southwest. 

Mark was delighted with the performances of the Ne- 
shamony. Bob gave a good account of her qualities, and 
said he should not hesitate to make sail in her for either 
of the continents, in a case of necessity. Accustomed, as 
he had been of late, to the |,ittle Bridget, the pinrace ap- 
peared a considerable craft to Mark, and he greatly exulted 
in this acquisition. No seaman could hesitate about pass- 
ing from the Reef to the islands, at any time when it did 
not absolutely blow a gale, in a boat of this size atid of 
such qualities ; and, even in a gale, it might be possible to 
make pretty good weather of it. Away she now went, 
leaving the Bridget moored in Snug Cove, to await their 
return. Of course, Mark and Bob had much discourse, 
while running down before the wind that night, in which 
each communicated to the other many things that still re- 
mained to be said. Mark was never tired of asking ques- 
tions about Bridget ; her looks, her smiles, her tears, her 
hopes, her fears, her health, her spirits, and her resolution, 
being themes of which he never got weary. A watch was 
set, nevertheless, and each person in the pinnace had his 
turn of sleep, if sleep he could. 

At the rising of the sun Mark was awake. Springing 


THE CRATER. 


209 


to his feet, he saw that Rancocus Island was plainly in 
view. In the course of the ten hours she had been out, 
the Neshamony had run about seventy miles, having a 
square-sail set, in addition to her jib and mainsail. This 
brought the mountain for which she was steering within 
ten leagues, and directly to leeward. A little impatience 
was betrayed by the young husband, but, on the whole, ^ he 
behaved reasonably well. Mark had never neglected his 
person, notwithstanding his solitude. Daily baths, and the 
most scrupulous attention to his attire, so far as neatness 
went, had kept him not only in health, but in spirits, the 
frame of the mind depending most intimately on the con- 
dition of the body. Among other habits, he preserved that 
of shaving^daily. The cutting of his hair gave him the 
most trouble, and he had half a mind to get Bob to act as 
barber on the present occasion. Then he remembered 
having seen Bridget once cut the hair of a child, and he 
could not but fancy how pleasant it would be to have her 
moving about him, in the performance of the same office 
on himself. He decided, consequently, to remain as he 
was, as regarded his looks, until his charming bride could 
act as his hair-dresser. The toilette, however, was not 
neglected, and, on the whole, there was no reason to com- 
plain of the young man’s appearance. The ship furnished 
him clothes at will, and the climate rendered so few neces- 
sary, 'that even a much smaller stock than he possessed, 
would probably have supplied him for life. 

When about a league from the northern end of Ranco- 
cus Island, Bob set a little flag at his mast-head, the signal, 
previously arranged, of his having been successful. Among 
the stores brought by the party from America, were three 
regular tents, or marquees, which Heaton puroJiased at a 
sale of old military stores, and had prudently brought with 
him, to be used as occasion might demand. These mar- 
quees were now pitched on a broad piece of low land, that 
lay between the cliffs and the beach, and where the colony 
had temporarily established itself. Mark’s heart beat vio- 
lently as Bob pointed out these little canvas dwellings to 
him. They were the abodes of his friends, including bis 


^ 210 


THE CRATER. 


# 

young wife. Next the cows appeared, quietly grazing 
near by, with a pleasant home look, and the goats and colts 
were not far off, cropping the grass. Altogether our young 
man was profoundly overcome again, and it was some time 
ere he could regain his self-command. On a point that 
proved to be the landing-place, stood a solitary female 
figure. As the boat drew nearer she extended her arms, 
and then, as if unable to stand, she sunk on a rock which 
had served her for a seat ever since the distant sail was 
visible. In two more minutes Mark Woolston had his 
charming young bride encircled in his arms. The delicacy 
which kept-the others aloof from this meeting, was imitated 
by Brb, who, merely causing the boat to brush near the 
rock, so as to allow of Mark’s jumping ashore, passed on 
to a distant landing, where he was met by most of his 
party, including “Friend Martha,” who rejoiced not a little 
in the safe return of Friend Robert Betts. In half an hour 
Mark and Bridget came up to the marquees, when the 
former made the acquaintance of his brother-in-law, and 
had the happiness of embracing his sister. It was a morn- 
ing of the purest joy, and deepest gratitude. On the one 
side, the solitary man found himself restored to the delights 
of social life, in the persons of those on earth whom he 
most loved; and, on the other hand, the numberless appre- 
hensions of those who looked for him, and his place of re- 
tirement, had all their anxiety rewarded by complete suc- 
cess. Little was done that day but to ask and answer 
questions. Mark had to recount all that had happened 
since Bob was taken from him, and not trifling was the 
trepidation created among his female listeners, when he re- 
lated the history of the earthquake. Their fears, however, 
were somewhat appeased by his assurances of security ; the 
circumstance that a volcano was in activity near by, being 
almost a /pledge that no very extensive convulsions could 
follow. 

The colonists remained a week at Rancocus Island, 
being actually too happy to give themselves the disturb- 
ance of a removal. At the end of that time, however, 
Anne was so far recovered that they began to talk of a 


THE CRATER. 


211 

voyage, Bridget, in particular, dying to see the place 
where Mark had passed so many solitary hours ; and, as 
he had assured her more than once, where her image had 
scarcely ever been absent from his thoughts an liour at a 
time. As it would be impossible to embark all the effects 
at once, in the Neshamony, some method was to be ob- 
served in the removal. The transportation of the cows 
and horses was the most serious part of the undertaking, 
the pinnace not being constructed to receive such animals. 
Room, nevertheless, could be made for one at a time and 
still leave sufficient space in the stern-sheets for the accom- 
modation of five or six jDersons. It was very desirable to 
get the females away first, lest the rumor of the mountain, 
hitherto unknown, should spread among the islands, and 
bring them visitors who. might prove to be troublesome, if 
not dangerous. Parties existed in Betto’s group, as we 
believe they exist everywhere else ; and Bob knew very 
wcdl that nothing but the ascendency of his friend, the 
chief, Ooroony, had been the means of his escaping as well 
as he did, in the land-fall among them that he had made 
The smallest reverse of fortune might put Betto down, 
and some bitter foe up, and then there was the certainty 
that war canoes might come off in quest of the mountain, 
at any time, without asking the leave of the friendly chief, 
even while he remained in power. On the whole, there- 
fore, it was determined to freight the pinnace with the 
most valuable of the .effects, put all the females on board, 
and send her off under the care of Mark, Heaton, and 
Socrates, leaving Bob and Bigelow to look after the stock 
and the rest of the property. It was supposed the boat 
might be absent a week. This was done accordingly, Bob, 
On taking leave of Friend Martha, particularly recom- 
mending to her attention the Vulcan’s Peak reed-birds, 
throwing in a hint that he should be glad to find a string 
of them in the pinnace, on her return. 

The voyage to windward was a much more serious busi- 
ness than the run to leeward. By Bob’s advice Mark 
reefed his mainsail, and took the bonnet off the jib. Fol- 
lowing the same instructions, he stood away to the south- 


212 


THE CRATER. 


ward, letting the boat go through the water freely, intend- j 
ing to tack when he came near the volcano, and not be- 
fore. This w'^as what Bob himself had done, and that 
which had turned out so well with him, he fancied might 
succeed with his friend. The Neshamony left Rancocus I 
Island just at sunset. Next morning Mark saw the j 
smoke of the Volcano, and stood for it. After making 
two stretches, he came up within a league of the spot, 
wdien he tacked and stood to the northw’^ard and eastward, 
Vulcan’s Peak having been in plain view the entire day. 
As respects the volcano, it was in a comparatively quiet 
state, though rumbling sounds were heard, and stones w'^ere 
cast into the air in considerable quantities, while the boat 
was nearest in. One thing, moreover, Mark ascertained, 
which greatly increased his confidence in the permanency 
of the changes that had lately occurred in tlie physical 
formation of all that region. He found himself in com- 
paratively shoal water, when fully a league from this new 
crater. Shoal in a seaman’s sense, though not in shallow 
water ; the soundings being from fifteen to twenty fath- 
oms,' with a rocky bottom. 

Between the volcano and Vulcan’s Peak it blew quite 
fresh, and Mark had a good occasion to ascertain the qual- 
ities of tlie pinnace. A long, heavy swell, came rolling 
through the passage, which was near sixty miles in width, 
seemingly with a sweep that extended to the Southern 
Ocean. Notwithstanding all this, the little craft did won- 
ders, struggling along in a way one would hardly have ex- 
pected from so small a vessel. She made fully two knots’ 
headway in the worst of it, and in general her rate of 
sailing, close on a wind and under pretty short canvas, was 
about three. The night was very dark, and there was 
nothing to steer by but the wind, which gave some little 
embarrassment ; but finding himself in much smoother 
water than he had been all the previous day, about mid- 
night, our young man felt satisfied that he was under the 
lee of the island, and at no great distance from it. He 
made short tacks until daylight, when the huge mass hove 
up out of the departing darkness, within a mile of the 


THE CRATER. 


213 


boat. It only remained to run along the land for tsvo or 
three miles, and to enter the haven of Snug Cove. Mark 
had been telling his companions what a secret place this 
haven was to conceal a vessel in, when he had a practical 
confirmation of the truth of his statement that caused him 
to be well laughed at. For ten minutes he could not dis- 
cover the entrance himself, having neglected to take the 
proper land-marks, that he might have no difficulty in run- 
ning for his port. After a time, however, he caught sight 
of an object that he remembered, and found his way into 
the cove. Here lay the little namesake of his pretty wife, 
just as he had left her, the true Bridget smiling and blush- 
ing as the young husband pointed out the poor substitute 
he had been compelled to receive for herself, only ten days 
earlier. 

Mark, and Socrates, and Dido, and Teresa, Bigelow’s 
wife, all carried- up heavy loads ; while Heaton had as 
much as he could do to help Anne and the child up the 
sharp acclivity. Bridget, with her light active step, and 
great eagerness to behold a scene that Mark had described 
with so much eloquence, was the first, by a quarter of an 
hour, on the plain. When the others reached the top, 
they, saw the charming young thing running about in the 
nearest grove, that in which her husband had dined, col- 
lecting fruit and apparently as enchanted as a child. 
Mark paused, as he gained the height, to gaze on this 
sight, so agreeable in his eyes, and which rendered the 
place so very different from what it had been so recently, 
while he was in possession of its glorious beauties, a soli- 
tary man. Then, he had several times likened himself to 
Adam in the garden of Eden, before woman was given to 
him for a companion. Now, now he could feast his eyes 
on an Eve, who would have been highly attractive in any 
part of the world. 

The articles brought up on the plain, at this first trip, 
comprised all that was necessary to prepare and to partake 
of a breakfast in comfort. A fire was soon blazing, the 
kettle on, and the bread-fruit baking. It was almost pain- 
ful to destroy the reed-birds, or hecca jichi, so numerous 


. 214 


THE CRATER. 


were they, and so confiding. One discharge from each , 
barrel of the fowling-piece had enabled Heaton to bring 
in enough for the whole party, and these were soon roast- 
ing. Mark had brought witli him ffom the Reef, a basket 
of fresh eggs, and they had been Bridget's load, in ascend- 
ing the mountain. He had promised her an American 
breakfast, and these eggs, boiled, did serve to remind 
everybody of a distant home, that was still remembered 
with melancholy pleasure. A heartier, or a happier meal, 
notwithstanding, was never made than was that breakfast. 
The mountain air, invigorating though bland, the exercise, 
the absence of care, the excellence of the food, whicli 
comprised fresh figs, a tree or two of tolerable sweetness | 
having been found, the milk of the cocoa-nut, the birds, 
the eggs, the bread-fruit, etc., all contributed their share to 
render the meal memorable. ^ 

The men, and the three laboring w.omen, were em- 
ployed two days in getting the cargo of the Neshamony 
up on the plain ; or to Eden, as Bridget named the spot, 
unconscious hpw often she herself had been likened to a 
lovely Eve, in the. mind of her young husband. Two of 
the marquees had been brought, and were properly erected, 
having board floors, and everything comfoj-tably arranged 
within and without them. A roof, however, was scarcely 
necessary in that delicious climate, where one could get into 
the shade of a grove ; and a thatched shed was easily pre- 
pared for a dwelling for the others. By the end of the ; 
third day the whole party in Eden was comfortably estab- : 
lished, and Mark took a short leave of his bride, to sail j 
for Rancocus again. Bridget shed tears at this separation, j 
short as it was intended to be ; and numberless were the 1 
injunctions to be wary of the natives, should the latter 
have visited Betts, in the time intervening between the de- 
parture of the Neshamony and her return. 

The voyage between the two islands lost something of 
its gravity each time it was made. Mark learned a little 
every trip, of the courses to be steered, the pecularities of 
the currents, and the height of the seas. He ran down to 
Rancocus, on this occasion, in three hours’ less time than 


THE CRATER. 


215 


lie bud done it before, sailing at dusk, and reaching port 
next day at noon. Nothing bad occurred, and to work the 
men went at once, to load the pinnace. Room was left for 
one of the cows and itS'Calf; and Bob being seriously im- 
pressed with the importance of improving every moment, 
the little sloop put to sea again, the evening of the very 
day on which it had arrived. 

Bridget was standing on a rock, by .the side of the limpid 
water of the cove, when the Neshamony shot through its 
entrance into the little haven, and her hand was in Mark’s 
the instant he landed. Tears gushed into the eyes of the 
young man as he recalled his year of solitude, and felt how 
different was such a welcome from his many melancholy 
arrivals and departures, previously to the recent events. 

It was rather a troublesome matter to get the cow and 
calf up the mountain. The first did not see enough that 
was attractive in naked rocks, to induce her to mount in 
the best of humors. She drank freely, however, at the 
brook, appearing to relish its waters particularly well. At 
length the plan was adopted of carrying the calf up a good 
distance, the cries of the little thing inducing its mother 
immediately to follow. In this way both were got up into 
Eden, in the course of an hour. And well did the poor 
cow vindicate the name, when she got a look at the broad 
glades of the sweetest grasses, that were stretched before 
her. So strongly was her imagination struck with the 
view — for we suppose that some cows have even more im- 
agination than many men — that she actually kicked up 
her heels, and away she w'ent, head down and tail erect, 
scampering athwart the sward like a colt. It was not long, 
however, before she began to graze, the voyage having 
been made on a somewhat short allowance of both food 
and water. If there ever was a happy animal, it was that 
cow ! Her troubles were all over. Sea-sickness, dry food, 
short allowances of water, narrow lodgings, and hard beds, 
were all, doubtless, forgotten, as she roamed at pleasure 
over boundless fields, on which the grass was perennial, 
seeming never to be -longer or shorter than was necessary 
to give a good bite; and among which numberless rills ol 


216 


THE CRATER. 


the purest waters were sparkling like crystal. The great 
difficulty in possessing a dairy, in a warm climate, is the 
want of i^asture, the droughts usually being so long in the 
summer months. At Vulcan’s Peak, however, and indeed 
in all of that fine region, it rained occasionally, through- 
out the year ; more in winter than in summer, and that 
was the sole distinction in the seasons, after allowing for a 
trifling change in the temperature. These peculiarities 
appear to have beenowing to the direction of the prevalent 
winds, which not only brought frequent showers, but which 
preserved a reasonable degree of freshness in the atmos- 
phere. Within the crater, Mark, had often found the 
heat oppressive, even in the shade ; but, without^ scarcely 
ever, provided his body was not directly exposed to the 
sun’s rays. Nor was the difference in the temperature 
between the Peef and the Peak as marked as might have 
been expected from the great elevation of the last. This 
was owing to the circumstance that the sea air, and that 
usually in swift motion, entered so intimately into the 
composition of the atmosphere down on that low range of 
rocks, imparting its customary freshness to everything' it 
passed over. 

Mark did not make the next trip to Rancocus. By this 
time Anne passed half the day in the open air, and was so 
fast regaining her strength that Heaton did not hesitate to 
leave her. The doctor had left many things behind him, 
that he much wished to see embarked in person, and he 
volunteered to be the companion of Socrates, on this occa- 
sion, leaving the bridegroom behind, with his bride. By 
this time Heaton himself was a reasonably good sailor, and 
to him Mark confided the instructions as to the course to 
be steered, and the distance to be run. All resulted fa- 
vorably, the Neshamony making the trip in very good 
time, bringing into the cove, the fourth day after she had 
sailed, not only the remaining cow, and her calf, but sev- 
eral of the goats. Convinced he might now depend on 
Heaton and Socrates to sail the pinnace, and Anne ex- . 
pressing a perfect willingness to remain on the Peak, in 
company with Teresa and Dido, Mark resolved to proceed 


»THE CRATER. 


217 


lo the crater with his two Bridgets, feeling tlie propriety 
of no longer neglecting the property in that quarter of his 
dominions. There was nothing to excite apprehension, 
and the women had all acquired a certain amount of reso- 
lution that more properly belonged to their situation than 
to their sex or nature. Anne’s great object of concern 
was the “ baby.” As long as that was safe, everything 
with her was going on well ; and Dido being a renowned 
baby doctor, and all the simples for a child’s ailings being 
in the possession of the young mother, she raised no ob- 
jection whatever to her brother’s quitting her. 

Bridget had great impatience to make this voyage, for 
she longed to see the spot where her husband had passed 
so many days in. solitude. Everything he had mentioned, 
in their many conferences on this subject, was already fa- 
npliar to her in imagination ; but she wished to become 
more intimately acquainted with each and all. For Kitty 
she really entertained a decided fondness, and even the 
pigs, as Mark’s companions, had a certain romantic value 
in her eyes. 

The morning was taken for the departure, and just as 
the little craft got out from under the lee of the Peak, and 
began to feel the true breeze, the sun rose gloriously out of 
the eastern waves, lighting the whole of the blue waters with 
his brilliant rays. Never did Vulcan’s Peak appear more 
grand or more soft — for grandeur or sublimity, blended 
with softness, make the principal charm of noble tropical 
scenery — than did it that morning ; and Bridget looked up 
at the dark, overhanging cliffs, with a smile, as she said — 

“ We may love the Reef, dear Mark, for what it did for 
you in your distress, but I foresee that this Eden will 
eventually become our home.” 

“There are many things to render this mountain prefer- 
able to the Reef; though, now we are seriously thinking 
of a colony, it may be well to keep both. Even Rancocus 
would be of great value to us, as a pasture for goats, and 
a range for cattle. It may be long before the space will 
be wanted by human beings, for actual cultivation ; but 
each of our present possessions is now, and long will con- 


218 


THE CRATER, 


tinue to be, of great use to us as assistants. We shall live 
principally on the Peak, I think myself ; but we must fish, 
get our salt, and obtain most of our vegetables from the 
Reef.” 

“ Oh ! that Reef, that Reef — how long will it be, Mark, 
before we see it ? ” 

The enamored young husband laughed, and kissed his 
charming wife, and told her to restrain her impatience. 
Several hours must elapse before they could even come in 
sight -of the rocks. These hours did pass, and with the 
occurrence of no event worthy of being recorded. The 
Trades usually blew fresh in that quarter of the ocean, but 
it was seldom that they brought tempests. Occasionally 
squalls did occur, it is true ; but a prudent and experienced 
mariner could ordinarily guard against their consequences, 
while the hurricane seldom failed, like most other great 
physical phenomena, to have its precursors, that were 
easily seen and understood. On the present occasion, the 
boat ran across the passage in very good time, making the 
crater in about five hours, and the ship’s masts in six. 
Mark made a good land-fall coming in to leward of the 
cape, or low promontory already mentioned — Cape South 
he called it — wdiile there still remained several hours of 
day. Bridget was greatly struck with the vast difference 
she could not help finding between the appearance of these 
low, dark, and so often naked rocks, and that of the Eden 
she had just left. Tears came into her eyes, as she i)ict- 
ured her husband a solitary wanderer over these wastes, 
with no water, even, but that which fell from the clouds, 
or which came from the casks of the ship. When, how- 
ever, she gave utterance to this feeling, one so natural to 
her situation, Mark told her to have patience until they 
reached the crater, when she would see that he had pos- 
sessed a variety of blessings, for which he had every reasoi 
to be grateful to God. 

There was no difficulty in getting into the proper chan- 
nel, when the boat fairly flew along the rocks that lined 
the passages. So long as she was in rough water, the 
sails of so small a craft were necessarily becalmed a good 

i 


THE CRATER. 


219 


deal of the time ; but now that there was nothing to in • 
tercept the breeze, she caught it all, and made the most ol 
it. To Mark’s surprise, as they passed the Prairie, he saw ' 
all of his swine on it, now, including two half-unconsumed 
litters of well-grown pigs, some seventeen in number. 
These animals had actually found their way along the 
rocks, a distance of at least twenty miles from home, and 
by the crooked path they had taken, probably one much 
greater. They all appeared full, and contented. So mucli 
of the water had already evaporated as to make it tolerable 
walking on the sea-weed ; and Mark, stopping to examine 
the progress of things, prognosticated that another year, in 
that climate, would convert the whole of that wide plain 
into dry land. In many places, the hogs had already 
found their way down, through the sea-weed, into the mud ; 
and there was one particular spot, quite near the channel, 
where the water was all gone, and where the pigs had 
rooted over so much of the surface, as to convert two or 
three acres into a sort of half-tilled field, in which the sea- 
weed was nearly turned under the mud. Nothing but 
drenching rains were wanting to render such a place 
highly productive, .and it was certain those rains would 
come at the end of the season. 

About the middle of the day, Mark ran the boat along- 
side of the Reef, at the usual landing, and welcomed 
Bridget to his and her home, with a kiss. Everything 
was in its place, and a glance sufficed to show that no hu- 
man foot had been there, during the weeks of his absence. 
Kitty was browsing on the Summit, and no spaniel could 
have played more antics than she did, at the sight of her 
master. ' At first, Mark had thought of transferring this 
gentle and playful young goat to the Peak, and to place 
her in the little flock collected there ; but he had been in- 
duced to change his mind, by recollecting how much she 
contributed to the beauty of the Summit, by keeping down 
the grass. had therefore brought her a companion, 

which 'had no sooner been landed on the Reef, than it 
bounded off to make acquaintance with the stranger on the 
elevation. 


220 


THE CRATER. 


Bridget was almost overcome when she got on board the 
ship. There was even a certain sublimity in the solitude 
that reigned over everything, that impressed her imagina- 
tion, and she wondered that any human being could so 
long have dwelt there alone, uncheered by the hope of de- 
liverance. In the eabin of that vessel she had plighted 
her faith to Mark, and a flood of recollections burst upon 
her as she entered it. Mark was obliged to allow her to 
seek relief in tears. But half an hour brought her round 
again, and then she set about putting things in order, and 
making this very important abode submit to the influence 
of woman’s love of comfort and order. By the time 
Mark came back from his garden, whither he had gone to 
ascertain its condition, Bridget had his supper ready for 
him, prepared with a neatness and method to whicli he had 
long been a stranger. That was a very delicious meal to 
both. The husband had lighted a fire in the galley, where 
the wife had cooked the meal, which consisted principally 
of some pan-fisli, taken in the narrow channels between 
the rocks, and which had been cleaned by Mark himself, 
as they sailed along. It was, indeed, a great point of so- 
licitude with this young husband to prevent his charming 
wife from performing duties for which she was unfitted by 
education, while the wife herself was only too solicitous cO 
make herself useful. In one sense, Bridget was a very 
knowing person about a household. She knew how to 
prepare many savory compounds, and had the whole culi- 
nary art at her fingers’ ends, in the way of giving direc- 
tions. It was no wonder, then, that Mark found every- 
thing she touched, or prepared, good, as everything she 
said sounded pleasant and reasonable. The last is*a highly 
important ingredient in matrimonial life, but the first has 
its merit. And Bridget Woolston was both pleasant and 
reasonable. Though a little romantic, and inclined to haz- 
ard all for feeling, and what she conceived to be duty, at 
the bottom of all ran a vein of excellent sense, which had 
been reasonably attended to. Her temper was sweetness 
itself, and that is one of the greatest requisites in married 
happiness. To this great quality must be added affection, 


THE CRATER. 


221 


for she was devoted to Mark, and iiotliing he wished would 
she hesitate about striving to obtain, even at painful sacri- 
fices to herself. One as generous-minded and manly as her 
husband, could not fail to discover and appreciate such a 
disposition, which entered very largely into the composi- 
tion of their future happiness. 

Our young couple did not visit the crater and the Sum- 
mit until the sun had lost most of its power. Then Mark 
introduced his wife into his garden, and to his lawn. Ex- 
clamations of delight escaped the last, at nearly every step ; 
for, in .addition to the accidental peculiarities of such a 
place, the vegetation had advanced, as vegetation only can 
advance within the tropics, favored by frequent rains and 
a rich soil. The radishes were half as large as Bridget’s 
wrists, and as tender as her heart. The lettuce was already 
heading ; the beans were fit to pull ; the onions large 
enough to boil, and the'pease even too old. On the Sum- 
mit Mark cut a couple of melons, which were of a flavor 
surpassing any he had ever before tasted. With that spot 
Bridget was especially delighted. It was, just then, as 
green as grass could be, and Kitty had found its plants so 
very sweet, that she had scarce descended once to trespass 
on the garden. Here and there the imprint of her little 
hoof was to be traced on a bed, it is true, but she appeared 
to have gone there more to look after the condition of the 
garden than to gratify her appetite. 

While on the Summit Mark pointed out to his wife the 
fowls, now increased to something like fifty. Two or three 
broods of chickens had come within the last month, mak- 
ing their living on the reef that was separated from that of 
the crater by means of the bridge of planks. As two or 
three flew across the narrow pass, however, he was aware 
that the state of his garden must be owing to the fact that 
they still found a plenty on those rocks for their support. 
In returning to the ship, he visited a half-barrel prepared 
for that purpose, and, as he expected, found a nest con- 
taining a dozen eggs. These he took the liberty of appro- 
priating to his own use, telling Bridget that they could eat 
some of them for their breakfast. 


222 


THE CRATER. 


But food never had been an interest to give our solitary 
man much uneasiness. From the hour when he found 
muck, and seaweed, and guano, he felt assured of the j 
means of subsistence ; being in truth, though he may not j 
have known it himself, more in danger of falling behind- 
hand, in consequence of the indisposition to activity that 
almost ever accompanies the abundance of a warm climate, 
than from the absolute want of the means of advancing. 
That night Mark and Bridget knelt, side by side, and re- 
turned thanks to God for all his mercies. How sweet the 
former found it to see the light form of his beautiful com- 
panion moving about the spacious cabin, giving it an air of 
home and happiness, no one can fully appreciate who has 
not been cut off from these accustomed joys, and then been 
suddenly restored to them. 


THE CRATER 


223 


CHAPTER XV. 

I beg, good Heaven, with just desires, 

What need, not luxury, requires; 

Give me, with sparing hands, but moderate wealth, 

A little honor, and enough of health; 

Free from the busy city life. 

Near shady groves and purling streams confined, 

A faithful friend, a pleasing wife; 

And give me all in one, give a contented mind. 

Anonymous. 

Mark and Bridget remained at the Reef a week, entirely 
alone. To them the time seemed but a single day ; and 
so completely were they engrossed with each other, and 
their present happiness, that they almost dreaded the hour 
of return. Everything was visited, however, even to the 
abandoned anchor, and Mark made a trip to the eastward, 
carrying his wife out into the open water, in that direction. 
But the ship and the crater gave Bridget the greatest hap- 
piness. Of these she never tired, though the first gave her 
the most pleasure. A ship was associated with all her 
earliest impressions of Mark ; on board that very ship she 
had been married ; and now it formed her home, tempora- 
rily, if not permanently. Bridget had been living so long 
beneath a tent, and in savage huts, that the accommoda- 
tions of the Rancocus appeared like those of a palace. They 
were not inelegant even, though it was not usual, in that 
period of the republic, to fit up vessels with a magnificence 
little short of royal yachts, as is done at present. In the 
way of convenience, however, our ship could boast of a 
great deal. Her cabins were on deck, or under a poop, 
and consequently enjoyed every advantage of light and air. 
Beneath were store-rooms, still well supplied with many 
articles of luxury, though time was beginning to make its 
usual inroads on their qualities. The bread was not quite 


224 


THE CRATER. 


as sound as it was once, nor did the teas retain all their 
strength and flavor. But the sugar was just as sweet as 
the day it was shipped, and in the coffee there was no ap- 
parent change. Of the butter, we do not choose to say 
anything. Bridget, in the prettiest manner imaginable, 
declared that as soon as she could set Dido at work the 
store-rooms should be closely examined, and thoroughly 
cleaned. Then the galley made such a convenient and 
airy kitchen ! Mark had removed the house, the awning 
answering every purpose, and his wife declared that it*was 
a pleasure to cook a meal for him, in so pleasant a place. 

The first dish Bridget ever literally cooked for Mark, 
with her own hands, or indeed for any one else, was a 
mess of “ grass,” as it was the custom of even the most 
polished people of America then to call asparagus. They 
had gone together to the asparagus bed on Loam Island, 
and had found the plant absolutely luxuriating in its fa- 
vorite soil. The want of butter was the greatest defect 
in this mess, for, to say the truth, Bridget refused the ship’s 
butter on this occasion, but luckily, enough oil remained to 
furnish a tolerable substitute. Mark declared he had never 
tasted anything in his life half so good ! 

At the end of the week, the governor, as Heaton had 
styled Mark, and as Bridget had begun playfully to term 
him, gave the opinion that it was necessary for them to | 
tear themselves away from their paradise. Never before, 
most certainly, had the Reef appeared to the young hus- 
band a spot as delightful as he now found it, and it did 
seem to him very possible for one to pass a whole life on 
it without murmuring. His wife again and again assured 
him she had never before been half as happy, and that 
much as she loved Anne and the baby, she could remain i 
a month longer, without being in the least wearied. But 
it was prudent to return to the Peak, for Mark had never 
felt his former security against foreign invasion, since he 
was acquainted with the proximity of peopled islands. 

The passage was prosperous, and it gave the scene an 
air of civilization and life, to fall in with the Neshamoiiy 
off the Cove She was coming in from Rancocus, on her 


THE CRATER. . 


225 


last trip for the stores, having brought everything away 
but tw'O of the goats. These had been driven up into the 
mountains, and there left. Bigelow had come away, and the 
wliole party of colonists were now assembled at Vulcan’s 
Peak. But Betts had a communication to make that gave 
the governor a' good deal of concern. He reported that 
after they had got the pinnace loaded, and were only wait 
ing for the proper time of day to quit Rancocus, they dis- 
covered a fleet of canoes and catamarans, approaching the 
island from the direction of the Group, as they familiarly 
termed the cluster of islands that was knowm to be nearest 
to them, to the northward and westward. By means of a 
glass, Betts had ascertained that a certain Waally was on 
board the leading canoe, and he regarded this as an evil 
omen. Waally was Ooroony’s most formidable rival and 
most bitter foe ; and the circumstance that he was leading 
such a flotilla, of itself, Bob thought, was an indication 
that he had prevailed over honest Betto, in some recent 
encounter, and was now abroad, bent on further mischief. 
Indeed, it seemed scarcely possible that men like the natives 
should hear of the existence of such a mountain as that of 
Kancocus Island, in their vicinity, and not wish to explore, 
if not to possess it. 

Betts had pushed off, and made sail, as soon as assured 
of this fact. He knew the pinnace could outsail anything 
the islanders possessed, more especially on a wind, and he 
manoeuvred about the flotilla for an l)Our, making his ob- 
servations, before he left it. This was clearly a w^ar party, 
and Bob thought there were white men in it. At least, 
he saw two individuals wdio appeared to him to be white 
sailors, attired in a semi-savage way, and who were in the 
same canoe with the terrible Waally. It was nothing out 
of the way for seamen to get adrift on the islands scattered 
about in the Pacific, there being scarcely a group in which 
more or less of them are not to be found. The presence 
of these men, too. Bob regarded as another evil omen, and 
he felt the necessity of throwing all the dust he could into 
their eyes. When the pinnace left the flotilla, therefore, 
instead of passing out to windward of the island, as was 
15 


226 


THE CRATER. 


her true course, slie steered in an almost contrary direc- 
tion, keeping off well to leeward of the land, in order not 
to get becalmed under the heights, for Bob well knew the 
canoes, with paddles, would soon overhaul him, should he 
lose the wind. 

It was the practice of our colonists to quit Rancocus 
just before the sun set, and to stand all night on a south- 
east course. This invariably brought them in sight of the 
smoke of the volcano by morning, and shortly after they | 
made the Peak. All of the day that succeeded, was com- 
monly passed in beating up to the volcano, or as near to it 
as it was thought prudent to go ; and tacking to the north- 
ward and eastward, about sunset of the second day, it was 
found on the following morning, that the Neshamony was 
drawing near to the cliffs of Vulcan’s Peak, if she were 
not already beneath them. As a matter of course, then, 
Bob had not far to go, before night shut in, and left him 
N^at liberty to steer in whatever direction he pleased. For- 
tunately, that night had no moon, though there was not 
much danger of so small a craft as the Neshamony being 
seen at any great distance on the water, even by moonlight. - 
Bob consequently determined to beat up off the north end 
of the island, or Low Cape, as it was named by the colo- 
rists, from the circumstance of its having a mile or two 
of low land around it, before the mountains commenced. 
Once off the Cape again, and reasonably well in, he might 
possibly make discoveries that would be of use. 

It took two or three hours to regain the lost ground, by 
beating to windward. By eleven o’clock, however, the 
Neshamony was not only off the Cape, but quite close in 
with the landing. The climate rendering fires altogether 
unnecessary at that season, and indeed at nearly all sea- 
sons, except for cooking. Bob could not trace the encamp- 
ment of the savages, by that means. Still, he obtained 
all the information he desired. This was not done, how- 
ever, without great risk, and by a most daring step on his 
part. He lowered the sails of the boat and went alongside 
of the rock, where the pinnace usually came to, the canoes, 
etc., having made another, and a less eligible harbor. Bob 


THE CRATER. 


227 


then landed in person, and stole along the shore in the 
direction of the sleeping savages. Unknown to himself, he 
was watched, and was just crouching under some bushes, 
in order to get a little nearer, when he felt a hand on his 
shoulder. There was a moment when blood was in danger 
of being shed, but Betts’s hand was stayed by hearing, in 
good English, the words — 

Where are you bound, shipmate ? ” 

This question was asked in a guarded, under-tone, a cir- 
cumstance that reassured Bob, quite as much as the lan- 
guage. He at once perceived that the two men whom 
he had, rightly enough, taken for seamen, were in these 
bushes, where it would seem they had long been on the 
watch, observing the movements of the pinnace. They 
told Bob to have no apprehensions, as all the savages were 
asleep, at some little distance, and accompanied him back 
to the Neshamony. Here, to the surprise and joy of all 
parties, Bigelow recognized both the sailors, who had not 
only been his former shipmates, but were actually his 
townsmen in America, the whole three having been born 
within a mile of each other. The history of these three 
wanderers from home was very much alike. They had 
come to the Pacific in a whaler, with a drunken captain, 
and had, in succession, left the ship. Bigelow found his 
way to Panama, where he was caught by the dark eyes of 
Theresa, as has been related. Peters had fallen in with 
Jones, in the course of his wanderings, and they had been 
for the last two years among the pearl islands, undecided 
what to do with themselves, when Waally ordered both to 
accompany him in the present expedition. They had 
gathered enough in hints given by different chiefs, to un- 
derstand that a party of Christians was to be massacred, 
or enslaved, and plundered of course. They had heard 
of the “ canoe ” that had been tabooed for twelve moons, 
but were at a loss to comprehend one half of the story, 
and were left to the most anxious conjectures. They 
were not permitted to pass on to the islands under the 
control of Ooroony, but were jealously detained in Waally’s 
part of the group, and consequently had not been in a sit- 


228 


THE CRATER. 


uatiou to learn all the particulars of the singular party of 
colonists who had gone to the southward. Thus much did 
Peters relate, in substance, when a call among the savages 
notihed the whole of the whites of the necessity of com- 
ing to some conclusion concerning the future. Jones and 
Peters acknowledged it would not be safe to remain any 
longer, though the last gave his opinion with an obvious 
reluctance. As it afterwards appeared, Peters had mar- 
ried an Indian wife, to whom he was much attached, and 
he did not like the idea of abandoning her. There was 
but a moment for reflection, however, and almost without 
knowing it himself, when he found the pinnace about to 
make sail in order to get off the land, he followed Jones 
into her, and was half a mile from the shore before he had 
time to reflect much on her he had left behind him. His 
companion consoled him by telling him that an opportunity 
might occur of sending a message to Petrina, as they had 
named the pretty young savage, who would not fail to And 
her way to Raucocus, sooner or later. 

With these important accessions to his forces, Bob did not 
hesitate about putting to sea, leaving Waally to make what 
discoveries he might. Should the natives ascend to the 
higher parts of the mountain, they could hardly fail to see 
both the smoke of the volcano and the Peak, though it 
would luckily not be in their power to see the . Reef, or 
any part of that low group of rocks. It was very possi- 
ble they might attempt to cross the passage between the 
two mountains, though the circumstance that Vulcan’s 
Peak lay so directly to windward of Rancocus offered a 
very serious obstacle to their succeeding. Had the two 
sailors remained with them ihey^ indeed, might have taught 
the Indians to overcome the winds and waves ; but these 
very men wer«. of opinion, from what they had seen of 
\he natives and of their enterprises, that it rather exceeded 
.iheir skill and perseverance, to work their canoes a hun- 
dred miles dead to windward, and against the sea that was 
usually on in that quarter of the Pacific. 

The colonists, generally, gave the two recruits a very 
welcome reception. Bridget smiled when Mark suo-o-ested 


THE CRATER. 


229 


tliut Jones, who was a well-looking lad enough, would 
make a very proper husband for Joan, and that he doubted 
not his being called on, in his character of magistrate, to 
unite them in the course of the next six montlis. The 
designs of the savages, however, caused the party to think 
of anything but weddings, just at that moment, and a 
council was held to devise a plan for their future govern- 
ment. As Mark was considered the head of the colony, 
and had every way the most experience, his opinion 
swayed those of his companions, and all his recommenda- 
tions were adopted. There were on board the ship eight 
carronades, then quite a new gun, and mounted on trucks. 
They were of the bore of , twelve-pounders, but light and 
manageable.^^^There was also abundance of ammunition 
in the vessel’s magazine, no ship coming to the Fejees to 
trade without a proper regard to the armament. Mark 
proposed going over to the Reef with the Neshamony, the 
very next day, in order to transport two of the guns, with 
a proper supply of powder and shot, to the Peak. Now 
there was gne place on the path, or Stairs, where it would 
be easy to defend the last against an arm}’-, the rocks, 
which were absolutely perpendicular on each side of it, 
coming so close together, as to render it practicable to 
close the passage by a narrow gate. This gate Mark did 
not purpose to erect now, for he thought it unnecessary. 
All he intended was to plant the two guns at this pass ; 
one on a piece of level rock directly over it, and a little 
on one side, which would command the entrance to the 
Cove, and the Cove itself, as well as. the whole of the path 
beneath, and the other on another natural platform, a 
short distance above, where it could not only command the 
pass, but, by using the last as a sort of embrasure, by firing 
through it, could not only sweep the ravine for some dis- 
tance down, but could also rake the entrance of the Cove, 
and quite half of the little basin itself. 

Bob greatly approved of this arrangement, though all 
the seamen were too much accustomed to obey their offi- 
cers to raise the smallest objections to anything that Mark 
proposed. Betts was the only person who had made the 


230 


THE CRATER. 


circuit of the Peak ; but he, and Mark, and Heaton, who 
had been a good deal round the cliffs, on the side of the 
water, all agreed in saying they did not believe it possible 
for a human being to reach the plain, unless the ascent 
was made by the Stairs. This, of course, rendered the 
fortifying of the last a matter of so much the greater im- 
portance, since it converted the whole island into a second 
Gibraltar. It is true, the Reef would remain exposed to 
depredations ; though Mark was of opinion that, by leav- 
ing a portion of their force in the ship, with two or three 
of the guns at command, it would not be difficult to beat 
off five hundred natives. As for the crater, it might very 
easily be made impregnable. 

At this meeting Heaton proposed the establishment of 
some sort of government and authority, which tliey should 
all solemnly swear to support. The idea was favorably 
received, and Mark was unanimously chosen governor for 
life, the law being the rule of right, with such special en- 
actments as might, from time to time, issue from a council 
of three, who were also elected for life. This council 
consisted of the governor, Heaton, and Betts. Human 
society has little difficulty in establishing itself on just 
principles, when the wants are few and interests simple. 
It is the bias given by these last that perverts it from 'the 
true direction. In our island community, most of its citi- 
zens were accustomed to think that education and practice 
gave a man certain claims to control, and, as yet, dema- 
gogism had no place with them. A few necessary rules, 
that were connected with their particular situation, were 
enacted by the council and promulgated, when the meeting 
adjourned. Happily they were as yet far, very far from 
that favorite sophism of the day, which would teach the 
inexperienced to fancy it an advantage to a legislator to 
commence his career as low as possible on the scale of 
ignorance, in order that he might be what it is the fashion 
to term “ a self-made man.” 

Mark now took the command, and issued his orders 
with a show of authority. His attention was first turned 
to rendering the Peak impregnable. There were a plenty 


THE CRATER. 


231 

of muskets and fowling-pieces already there, Heaton hav 
ing come well provided with arms and ammiiiiitioii. As 
respects the last, Peters and Jones were set to work to 
clear out a sort of cavern in the rock, that was not only of 
a convenient size, but which was conveniently placed for 
such a purpose, at no great distance from the head of the 
Stairs, to receive the powder, etc. The cavity was per- 
fectly dry, an indispensable requisite, and it was equally 
well protected against the admission of water. 

The next thing was to collect a large pile of dry wood 
on the naked height of the Peak. This was to be lighted, 
at night, in the event of the canoes appearing while he 
was absent, Mark being of opinion that he could see such 
a beacon-fire from the Reef, whither he was about to pro- 
ceed. Having made these arrangements, the governor set 
sail with Betts, Bigelow, and Socrates for his companions, 
leaving Heaton, with Peters and Jones, to take care of 
most of the females. We say of most, since Dido and 
Juno went along, in order to cook, and to wash all the 
clothes of the whole colony, a part of which were sent 
in the pinnace, but most of which were otj board the ship. 
This was a portion of his duty, when a solitary man, to 
which Mark was exceedingly averse, and having shirts al- 
most ad libitum^ Bridget had found nearly a hundred ready 
for the “ buck-basket.” There was no danger, therefore, 
that the “ wash ” would be too small. 

Betts was deeply impressed with the change that he 
found in the rocks. There, where he had left water over 
which he had often floated his raft, appeared dry land. Nor 
was he much less struck with the appearance of the crater. 
It was now a hill of a bright, lively verdure, Kitty and 
her new friend keeping it quite as closely cropped as was 
desirable. The interior, too, struck him forcibly ; for 
there, in addition to the garden, now flourishing, though a 
little in want of the hoe, was a meadow of acres in ex- 
tent, in which the grass was fit to cut. Mark had ob- 
served this circumstance when last at the crater, and 
Socrates had brought his scythe and forks, to cut and euro 
the hay. 


232 


THE CRATER. 


I 

The morning after the arrival, everybody went to work. 
The women set up their tubs, under an awning spread for 
that ])urpose, near the spring, and were soon up to their | 
elbows in suds. The scythe was set in motion, and the ■ 
pinnace was taken round to the ship. Three active sea- 1 
men soon hoisted out the carronades, and stowed them in 
the little sloop. The ammunition followed, and half a 
dozen barrels of the beef and pork were put in the Nesha- 
mony also. Mark scarcely ever touched this food now, 
the fish, eggs, chickens, and pigs keeping his larder sutli- 
ciently well supplied. But some of the men pined for 
ship’s provisions, beef and pork that had now been packed 
more than two years, and the governor thought it might be 
well enough to indulge them. The empty barrels would 
be convenient on the Peak, and the salt would be accept- 
able, after being dried and pulverized. 

The day was passed in loading the Neshamony, and in 
looking after various interests on the Reef. The hogs had 
all come in, and were fed. Mark shot one, and had it 
dressed, putting most of its meat into the pinnace. He 
also sent Bob out to his old place of resort, near Loam 
Island, whence he brought back near a hundred hog-fish. 
These were divided, also, some being given to Dido’s mess, 
and the rest put in the pinnace, after taking out enough 
for a good supper. About ten at night the Neshamony 
sailed, Mark carrying her out into the open water, when 
he placed Bob at the helm. Bigelow had remained in the 
ship, to overhaul the lumber, of which there were still 
large piles both betwixt decks and in the lower hold, as 
did the whole of the .Socrates family*, who were yet oc- 
cupied with the hay harvest and the “ wash.” Before he lay 
down to catch his nap, Mark took a good look to the south- 
ward, in quest of the beacon, but it was not burning, a 
sign the savages had not appeared in the course of the 
day. With this assurance he fell asleep, and slept until 
informed by Bob that the pinnace was running in beneath 
the cliffs. Betts called him, because the honest fellow was 
absolutely at a loss to know where to find the entrance of 
the Cove. So closely did the rocks lap, that this mouth 


THE CRATER. 


238 


of the li arbor was most effectually concealed from all but 
those who happened to get quite close in with the -cliffs, 
and in a particular position. Mark, himself, liad caught a 
glimpse of this narrow entrance accidentally, on his first 
voyage, else might he have been obliged to abandon the 
hope of getting on the -heights ; for subsequent examina- 
tion showed that there was but that one spot, on the whole 
circuit of Vulcan’s Peak, where man could ascend to the 
})lain, without having recourse to engineering and the labor 
of months, if not of years. 

Bob had brought along one of the two swivels of the 
ship, as an armament for the Neshamony, and he fired it 
under the cliffs, as a signal of her return. This brought 
down all the men, who, with their united strength, dragged 
the carronades up the Stairs, and placed them in position. 
With a view to scale the guns, the governor now had each 
loaded, with a round shot and a case of canister. The 
gun just above the pass, he pointed himself, at the en- 
trance of the Cove, and touched it off. The whole of the 
missiles went into the passage, making the water fairly 
foam again. The other gun was depressed so as to sweep 
the Stairs and, on examination, it was found that its shot 
had raked the path most effectually for a distance exceed- 
ing a hundred yards. Small magazines were made in the 
rocks, near each gun, when the most important part of the 
arrangements for defense were considered to be satisfac- 
torily made for the present. The remainder of the cargo 
was discharged, and got up' the mountain, though it took 
three days to effect the last. The provisions were opened 
below and overhauled, quite one half of the pork being 
consigned to the soap-fat, though the beef proved to be 
still sound and sweet. Such as was thought fit to be con- 
sumed was carried up in baskets, and re-packed on the 
mountain, the labor of rolling up the barrels satisfying 
everybody, after one experiment. This difficulty set Mark 
to work with his wits, and he found a shelf that over 
hung the landing, at a height of fully a hundred yards 
above it, where there was a natural platform of rock that 
would suffice for the parade of a regiment of men. Here 


234 


THE CRATER. 


he determinefl to rig a derrick, for there was an easy as- 
ceni and descent to this platform,” as the place was called, 
and down which a cart might go without any difficulty, if a 
cart was to be had. The “ platform ” might also be used for 
musketeers, in an action, and on examining it Mark deter- 
mined to bring over one of the two long sixes, and mount it 
there, with a view to command the offing. From that height 
a shot could be thrown in any direction, for more than a 
mile, outside of the harbor. 

Heaton had seen no signs of the canoes, nor could Mark, 
at any time during the next four days after his return, 
though he was each day on the Peak itself, to examine 
the ocean. On the fifth day, therefore, he and Bob 
crossed over to the Reef again, taking Bridget along this 
time. The latter delighted in the ship, the cabins of which 
were so much more agreeable and comfortable than the 
tents, and which had so long been her husband’s solitary 
abode. 

On reaching the Reef, the governor was greatly sur- 
prised to find that Bigelow had the frame of a boat even 
larger than the pinnace set up, one that measured fourteen 
tons, though modeled to carry, rather than to sail. In 
overhauling the “ stuff ” in the ship, he had found not only 
all the materials for this craft, but those necessary for a 
boat a little larger than the Bridget, which, it seems, had 
been sent for the ordinary service of the ship, should any- 
thing occur to occasion the loss of the two she commonly 
used, in addition to the dingui. These were treasures, 
•ndeed, vessels of this size being of the utmost use to the 
(olonists. For the next month, several hands were kept 
at work on these two boats, when both were got into 
the water, rigged, and turned over for duty. The largest 
boat of the little fleet, which had no deck at all, not even 
forward, and which was not only lighter-built but lighter- 
rigged, having one large sprit-sail that brailed, was called 
the Mary, in honor of Heaton’s mother ; while the jolly- 
boat carried joy to the hearts of the house of Socrates, 
by being named the Dido. As she was painted black as 
a crow, this appellation was not altogether inappropriate, 


THE CRATER. 235 

Soc declaring, “ Jat 'e boat did a good deal favor his ole 
woman. 

While these things were in progress, the Neshamony 
was not idle. She made six voyages between the Reef 
and the Peak in that' month, carrying to the last, fish, 
fresh pork, various necessaries from the ship, as well as 
eggs and salt. Some of the fowls were caught and trans- 
ferred to the Peak, as well as half a dozen of the porkers. 
The return cargo consisted of reed-birds, in large quanti- 
ties, several other varieties of birds, bread-fruits, bananas, 
yams, cocoa-nuts, and a fruit that Heaton discovered, which 
was of a most delicious flavor, resembling strawberries 
and cream, and which was afterwards ascertained to be the 
charramoya, the fruit that, of all others, when good, is 
thought to surpass everything else of that nature. Bridget 
also picked a basket of famously large wild strawberries 
on the Summit, and sent them to Anne. In return, Anne 
sent her sister, not only cream and milk, by each pas- 
sage, but a little fresh' butter. The calves had been 
weaned, and the two cows were now giving their largest 
quantity of milk, furnishing almost as much butter as was 
wanted. 

-At the crater, Socrates put everything in order. He 
mowed the grass, and made a neat stack of it, in the centre 
of the meadow. He cleaned the garden thoroughly, and 
made some arrangements for enlarging it, though the yield, 
now, was quite as great as all the colonists could consume ; 
for, no sooner was one vegetable dug, or cut, than another 
was put in its place. On the Peak, Peters, who was half 
a farmer, dug over an acre or two of rich loam, and made 
a fence of brush, with a view of having a garden in Eden. 
Really, it almost seemed superfluous ; though those who 
had been accustomed to salads, and beans, and beets, and 
onions, and cucumbers, and all the other common vegeta- 
bles of a civilized kitchen, soon began to weary of the" 
more luscious fruits of the tropics. With the wild figs, 
however, Heaton, who was a capital horticulturist, fancied 
he could do something. He picked out three or four thriv- 
ing young trees of that class, which bore fruit a little better 


23B 


THE CRATER. 


flavored than most around them, and cut Away all their 
neighbors, letting in the sun and air freely. He also 
trimmed their branches, and dug around the roots, which 
he refreshed with guano ; the use of which had been im- 
parted by Mark to his fellow-colonists, though Bigelow 
knew all about it from having lived in Peru, and Bob had 
early let the governor himself into the secret. 

The governor and his lady, as the community now began 
to term Mr. and Mrs. Mark Woolston, were on the point 
of embarking in the Neshamony, to visit Vulcan’s Peak, 
after a residence on the Reef of more than a month, when 
' the orders for sailing were countermanded, in consequence 
of certain signs in the atmosphere, which indicated some- 
thing like another hurricane. The tempest came, and in 
good earnest, but without any of the disastrous conse- 
quences which had attended that of the previous year. It 
blew fearfully, and the water was driven into all the sounds, 
creeks, channels and bays of the group, bringing many of 
the islands, isthmuses, peninsulas, and plains of rock, what 
the seamen call “ awash,” though no material portion was 
actually overflowed. At the Reef itself, the water rose 
a fathom, but it did not reach the surface of the island by 
several feet, and all passed off without any other conse- 
quences than giving the new colonists a taste of the cli- 
mate. 

Mark, on this occasion, for the first time, noted a change 
that was gradually taking place on the surface of the Reef, 
without the crater. Most of its cavities were collecting 
deposits, that were derived from various sources. Sea- 
weed, offals, refuse stuff of all kinds, the remains of the 
deluge of fish that occurred the past year, and all the in- 
describable atoms that ever contribute to form soil in the 
neighborhood of man. There were many spots on the 
Reef, of acres in extent, that formed shallow basins, in 
“which the surface might be two or three inches lower than 
the surrounding rocks, and, in these spots in particular, 
the accumulations of an incipient earthy matter were 
plainly visible. As these cavities collected and retained 
the moisture, usually from rain to rain, Mark had some of 


THE CRATER. 


Friend Abraham White’s grass-seed sown over them, in 
order to aid nature in working out her own benevolent de- 
signs. In less than a month, patches of green began to 
appear on the dusky rocks, and there was good reason to 
hope that a few years would convert the whole Reef into 
a smiling, verdant plain. It was true, the soil could not 
soon obtain any useful depth, except in limited spots ; but, 
in that climate, where warmth and moisture united to push 
vegetation to the utmost, it was an easy thing to obtain a 
bottom for grasses of almost all kinds. 

Nor did Mark’s provident care limit itself to this one in- 
stance of forethought. - Socrates was sent in the dingiii to 
the Prairie, over which the hogs had now been rooting for 
fully two months, mixing together mud and sea-weed, 
somewhat loosely it is true, but very extensively; and there 
he scattered Timothy-seed in tolerable profusion. Socrates 
was a long-headed, as well as a long-footed fellow, and he 
brought back from this expedition a report that was of 
material importance to the future husbandry of the colo- 
nists. . According to his statement, this large deposit of 
mud and sea-weed lay on a peninsula, that might be barri- 
caded against the inroads of hogs, cattle, etc., by a fence 
of some two or three rods in length. This was a very fa- 
vorable circumstance, where wood was to be imported for 
many years to come, if not forever ; though the black had 
brought the seeds of certain timbers, from the Peak, and 
put them into the ground in a hundred places on the Reef, 
where the depth of deposit, and other circumstances, 
seemed favorable to their growth. As for the Prairie 
could it be made to grow grasses, it would be a treasure 
to the colony, inasmuch as its extent reached fully to a 
thousand acres. The examination of Socrates was flatter- 
ing in other respects. The mud was already dry, and the 
deposit of salt did not seem to be very great, little water 
having been left there after the eruption or lifting of the 
earth’s crust. The rains had done much, and certain 
coarse natural grasses, were beginning to show themselves 
in various parts of the field. As the hogs would not be 
likely to root over the same spot twice, it was not proposed 


238 


THE CRATER. 


to exclude them, but they were permitted to range over 
the field at pleasure, in the hope that they would add to its 
fertility by mixing the materials for soil. In such a cli- 
mate, every change of a vegetable character was extremely 
rapid, and now that no one thought of abandoning the set- 
tlement, it was very desirable to obtain the different bene- 
fits of civilization as soon as possible. 

All the blacks remained at the Reef, where Mark him- 
self passed a good deal of his time. In their next visit to 
the Peak, they found things flourishing, and the garden 
looking particularly well. The Vulcanists had their melons 
in any quantity, as well as most vegetables without limits. 
It was determined to divide the cows, leaving one on the 
Peak, and sending the other to the crater, where there was 
now sufficient grass to keep two or three such animals. 
With a view to this arrangement. Bob had been directed 
to fence in the garden and stack, by means of ropes and 
stanchions let into the ground. When the Anne returned 
to the Reef, therefore, from her first voyage to the Peak, 
a cow was sent' over in her. This change was made solely 
for the convenience of the milk, all the rest of the large 
stock being retained on the plain, w^here there was suffi- 
cient grass to sustain thousands of hoofs. 

But the return cargo of the Anne, on this her first voy- 
age, was composed mainly of ship-timber. Heaton had 
found a variety of the teak in the forests that skirted the 
plain, and Bigelow had got out of the trees the frame of a 
schooner that was intended to measure about eighty tons. 
A craft of that size would be of the greatest service to 
them, as it would enable the colonists to visit any part of 
the Pacific they pleased, and obtain such supplies as they 
might find necessary. Nor was this all ; by mounting on 
her two of the carronades, she would effectually give them 
the command of their own seas, so far as the natives were 
concerned at least. Mark had some books on the draught- 
ing of vessels, and Bigelow had once before laid down a 
brig of more than a hundred tons in dimensions. Then 
the stores, rigging, copper, etc., of the ship, could never be 
turned to better account than in the construction of 


THE CRATER. 


^239 


another vessel, and it was believed she could furnish mate- 
rials enough for two or three such craft. Out of compli- 
ment to his old owner, Mark named this schooner in em- 
bryo, the Friend Abraham White, though she was com- 
monly known afterwards as the Abraham. 

The cutting of the frame of the intended schooner was 
a thing easy enough, with expert American axemen, and 
with that glorious implement of civilization, the American 
axe. But it was not quite so easy to get the timber down 
to the Cove. The keel, in particular, gave a good deal of 
trouble. Heaton had brought along with him both cart 
and wagon wheels, and without that it is questionable if 
the stick could have been moved by any force then at the 
command of the colony. By suspending it in chains be- 
neath ‘the axles, however, it was found possible to draw it, 
though several of the women had to lend their aid in mov- 
ing the mass. When at the head of the Stairs, the timber 
was lowered on the rock, and was slid downwards, with 
occasional lifts by the crowbar and handspike. When it 
reached the water it was found to be much too heavy to 
float, and it was by no means an easy matter to buoy it 
up in such a way that it might be towed. The Anne was 
three times as long making her passage with this keel in 
'tow, as she was without it. It was done, however, and 
the laying of the keel was effected with some little cere- 
mony, in the presence of nearly every soul belonging to 
the colony. 

The getting out and raising of the frame of the Friend 
Abraham White took six weeks. Great importance was 
attached to success in this matter, and everybody assisted 
in the work with right good will. At one time it was/ 
doubted if stuff enough could be found in the ship to plank 
her up with, and it was thought it might become necessary 
to break up the Rancocus, in order to complete the job. 
To Bridget’s great joy, however, the good old Rancocus — ■ 
so they called her, though she was even then only eight 
years old — the good old Rancocus’s time had not yet come, 
and she was able to live in her cabin for some months 
longer. Enough planks were found by using those of the 


240 


THE CRATER. 


’twixt decks, a part of which were not bolted down at all, 
to accomplish all that was wanted. 

Heaton was a man of singular tastes, which led him to 
as remarkable acquirements. Among other accomplish- 
ments, he was a very good general mechanician, having an 
idea of the manner in which most of the ordinary ma- 
chinery ought to be, not only used, but fabricated. At 
the point where the rivulet descended the cliff into the 
sea, he discovered as noble a mill-seat as the heart of man 
could desire to possess. To have such a mill-seat at com- 
mand, and not to use it, would, of itself, have made him 
unhappy, and he could not be easy until he and Peters, 
who had also a great taste and some skill in that sort of 
thing, were hard at work building a saw-mill. The saw 
had been brought from America, as a thing very likely to 
be wanted, and three months after these two ingenious 
men had commenced their work, the saw was going, cut- 
ting teak, as well as a species of excellent yellow pine that 
v/as found in considerable quantities, and of very respect- 
able size, along the cliffs in the immediate vicinity of the, 
mill. The great difficulty to be overcome in that under- 
taking, was the transportation of the timber. By cutting 
the trees most favorably situated first, logs were got into 
the pond without much labor ; but after they were in 
planks, or boards, or joists, they were quite seven miles 
from the head of the Stairs, in the vicinity of which it 
was, on several accounts, the most desirable to dwell. 
Had the Abraham been kept on the stocks, until the nec- 
essary timber was brought from the mill, across the plain 
of Eden, she would have been well seasoned before launch- 
ing; but, fortunately, that was not necessary — materials 
sufficient for her were got on board the ship, as mentioned, 
with some small additions of inch boards that were cut to 
finish her joiners’ work. 

Months passed, as a matter of course, while the schooner 
and the mill were in the course of construction. The 
work on the first was frequently intermitted, by little voy- 
ages in the other craft, and by labor necessary to be done 
in preparing dwellings on the Peak, to meet the rainy sea- 


THE CRATER. 


241 


Bon, which was now again near at hand. Past experience 
had told Mark that the winter months in his islands, if 
winter a season could be termed, during which most of the 
trees, all the grasses, and many of the fruits continued to 
grow and ripen as in summer, were not very formidable. 
It is true it then rained nearly every day, but it was very 
far from raining all day. Most of the rain, in fact, fell at 
night, commencing a little after the turn in the day, and 
terminating about midnight. Still it must be very unpleas- 
ant to pass such a season beneath canvas, and, about six 
weeks ere the wet time commenced, everybody turned to, 
with a will, to erect proper framed houses. Now that the 
mill was sawing, this was no great task, the pine working 
beautifully and easily into almost every article required. 

Heaton laid out his house wdth some attention to taste, 
and more to comfort. It was of one story, but fully a 
hundred feet in length, and of half that in depth. Being 
a common American dwelling that was clap-boarded, it 
was soon put up and inclosed, the climate requiring very 
little attention to warmth. There were windows, and 
even glass, a small quantity of that article having been 
brought along by the colonists. The floors were beautiful, 
and extremely well laid down ; nor were the doors, win- 
dow-shutters, etc., neglected. The whole, moreover, was 
painted, the stores of the ship still furnishing the neces- 
sary materials. But there was neither chimney nor plas- 
tering, for Heaton had neither bricks nor lime. Bricks 
he insisted he could and would make, and did, though in 
no great number ; but lime, for some time, baffled his inge- 
nuity. At last, Socrates suggested the burning of oyster- 
shells, and by dint of fishing a good deal, among the chan- 
nels of the Reef, a noble oyster-bed was found, and the 
boats brought in enough of the shells to furnish as much 
lime as would put up a chimney for the kitchen ; one 
apartment for that sort of work being made, as yet, to 
suffice for the wants of all who dwelt in Eden. 

These various occupations and interests consumed 
many months, and carried the new-comers through the 
first wet season which they encountered as a colony. As 
16 


242 


THE CRATER. 


everybody was busy, plenty reigned, and the climate being 
so very delicious as to produce a sense of enjoyment in 
the very fact of existence, everybody but Peters was happy. 
He, poor fellow, mourned much for his Peggy, as he called 
the pretty young heathen wife he had left behind him in 
Waally’s country. 


THE CRATER. 




CHAPTER XVL 

Forthwith a guard at every gun 
Was placed along the wall; 

The beacon blazed upon the roof 
Of Edgecombe’s lofty hall ; 

And many a fishing bark put out, 

To pry along the coast ; 

And with loose rein, and bloody spur 
Rode inland many a post. 

The Spanish Armada. 

The building of the houses, and of the schooner, was 
occupation for everybody, for a long time. The first were 
completed in season to escape the rains ; but the last was 
on the stocks fully six months after her keel had been laid. 
The fine weather had returned, even, and she was not yet 
launched. So long a period had intervened since Waally’s 
visit to Rancocus Island without bringing any results, that 
the council began to hope the Indians had given up their 
enterprises, from the consciousness of not having the 
means to carry them out ; and almost every one ceased to 
apprehend danger from that quarter. In a W'ord, so 
smoothly did the current of life flow, on the Reef and at 
Vulcan’s Peak, that there was probably more danger of 
their inhabitants falling into the common and fatal error 
of men in prosperity, than of anything else ; or, of their 
beginning to fancy that they deserved all the blessings tliat 
were conferred on them, and forgetting the hand that be- 
stowed them. As if to recall them to a better sense of 
things, events now occurred which it is our business to 
relate, and which aroused the whole colony from the sort 
of pleasing trance into which they had fallen, by the united 
influence of security, abundance, ^nd a most seductive 
climate. 

As time rolled on, in the first place, the number of the 


244 


thp: crater. 


colony had begun to augment by natural means. Friend 
Martha had presented Friend Robert with a little Robert; 
and Bridget made Mark the happy parent of a very charm- 
ing girl. This last event occurred about the commence- 
ment of the summer, and just a twelve-month after the 
happy reunion of the young couple. According to Mark’s 
prophecy, Jones had succeeded with Joan, and they were 
married even before the expiration of the six months men- 
tioned. On the subject of a marriage ceremony there was 
no difficulty, Robert and Martha holding a Friends’ meet- 
ing especially to quiet the scruples of the bride, though 
she was assured the form could do no good, since the 
bridegroom did not belong to meeting. The governor read 
the church service on the occasion, too, which did no 
harm, if it did no good. About this time, poor Peters, 
envying the happiness of all around him, and ^till pining 
for his Petrina, or Peggy, as he called her himself, begged 
of the governor the use of the Dido, in order tliat lie might 
make a voyage to Waally’s group in quest of his lost com- 
panion. Mark knew how to feel for one in the poor fel- 
low’s situation, and he could not think of letting him go 
alone on an expedition of so much peril. After deliberat- 
ing on the matter, he determined to visit Rancocus Island 
himself — not having been in that direction, now, for 
months — and to go in the Neshamony, in order to take a 
couple of hogs over; it having long been decided to com- 
mence breeding that valuable animal, in the wild state, on 
the hills of that uninhabited land. 

The intelligence that a voyage was to be made to Ran- 
cocus Island seemed to infuse new life into the men of the 
colony, every one of whom wished to be of the party. The 
governor, had no objection to indulging as many as it might 
be prudent to permit to go ; but he saw the necessity of 
putting some restraint on the movement. After canvassing 
the matter in the council, it was determined that, in addi- 
tion to Mark and Peters, who went of course, the party 
should consist of Bob, Bigelow, and Socrates. The car- 
penter was taken to look for trees that might serve to make 
the ways of the schooner, which was yet to be launched ; 


THE CKATEK. 


215 


and the latter was thought necessary in his capacity of a 
cook. As for Betts, he went along as the governor’s coun- 
selor and companion. 

Bridget’s little girl was born in the cabin of the ship ; 
and the week preceding that set for the voyage, she and 
the child were taken across to the Peak, that the former 
night spend the period of her husband’s absence with 
Anne, in the Garden of Eden. These absences and occa- 
sional visits gave a zest to lives that might otherwise have 
become too monotonous, and were rather encouraged than 
avoided. It was, perhaps, a little strange that Bridget 
rather preferred the Reef than the Peak for a permanent 
residence ; but there was her much -beloved ship, and there 
she ever had her still more beloved husband for a com- 
panion. 

On the appointed day, the Neshamony set sail, having 
on board a family of three of the swine. The plan for 
the excursion included a trip to the volcano-, which had not 
yet been actually visited by any of the colonists. Mark 
had been within a league of it, and Bob had passed quite 
near to it in his voyage to the Peak ; but no one had ever 
positively landed, or made any of those close examinations 
of the place, which, besides being of interest in a general 
way, was doubly so to those who were such near neigh- 
bors to a place of the kind. This visit Mark now decided 
to make on his way to leeward, taking the volcano in liis 
course to Rancocus Island. The detour would lead the 
Neshamony some fifteen or eighteen leagues on one side ; 
but there was abundance of time, and the volcano ought 
to be no longer neglected. 

The wind did not blow as fresh as in common, and the 
Neshamony did not draw near to the volcano until late in 
the afternoon of the day she sailed. The party ap- 
proached this place with due caution, and not without a 
good deal of awe. As the lead was used, it was found 
that the water shoaled gradually for several leagues, be- 
coming less and less deep as the boat drew near to the 
cone, which was itself a circular and very regular mount- 
ain, of some six or eight hundred feet in height, with a 


246 


THE CRATER. 


foundation of dry rock and lava, that might have con-jf 
tained a thousand acres. Everything seemed solid and^ 
permanent ; and our mariners were of opinion there wasj 
very little danger of this formation ever disappearing be-| 
low the surfacjp of the sea again. j 

The volcano being in activity, some care was necessary 
in landing. Mark took the Neshamony to windward, and 
found a curvature in the rocks where it was possible to 
get ashore without having the boat knocked to pieces. 
He and Bob then went as near the cone as the falling 
stones would allow, and took as good a survey of the 
place as could be done under the circumstances. That 
there would be soil, and plenty of it, sooner or later, was 
plain* enough ; and that the island might become a scene 
of fertility and loveliness, in the course of ages, like so 
many others of volcanic origin in that quarter of the 
world, was probable. But that day was distant; and 
Mark was soon satisfied that the great use of the spot was 
its being a vent to what would otherwise be the pent and 
dangerous forces that were in the course of a constant ac- 
cumulation beneath. 

The party had been about an hour on the island, and 
was about to quit it, when a most startling discovery was 
made. Bob saW a canoe drawn close in among the rocks 
to leeward, and, on a further examination, a man was seen 
near it. At first, this was taken as an .indication of hos- 
tilities, but, on getting a second look, our mariners were 
satisfied that nothing of that sort was to be seriously ap- 
prehended. It was determined to go nearer to the stran- 
ger, at once, and learn the whole truth. 

A cry from Peters, followed by his immediately spring- 
ing forward to meet a second person, who had left the 
canoe, and who was bounding like a young antelope to 
meet him, rendered everything clear sooner even than had 
been anticipated. All supposed that this eager visitor was 
a woman, and no one doubted that it was Peggy, the poor 
fellow’s Indian wife. Peggy it proved to be ; and after 
the weeping, and laughing, and caressing of the meeting 
we*e a little abated, the following explanation was made 


THE CRATER. 

by Peters, who spoke the language of his wife with a good 
deal of facility, and who acted as interpreter. 

According to the accounts now given by Peggy, the 
warfare between Ooroony and Waally had been kept up 
with renewed vigor, subsequently to the escape of Jones 
and her own husband. Fortune had proved fickle, as so 
ofte 1 happens, and Waally got to be in the ascendant. 
His enemy was reduced to great straits, and had been 
compelled to confine himself to one of the smallest islands 
of the group, where he was barely able to maintain his 
party, by means of the most vigilant watchfulness. This 
left Waally at liberty to pursue his intention of following 
the party of whites, which was known to have gone to the 
southward, with so much valuable property, as well as to 
extend his conquests, by taking possession of the mountain 
visited by him the year previously. A grand expedition 
was accordingly planned, and a hundred canoes had act- 
ually sailed from the group, with more than a thousand 
warriors on board, bent on achieving a great exploit. In 
this expedition, Unus, the brother of Peggy, had been 
compelled to join, being a warrior of some note, and the 
sister had come along, in common with some fifty other 
women ; the rank of Unus and Peggy not being sufficient 
to attract attention to their proceedings. Waally had 
postponed this, which he intended for the great enterprise 
of a very turbulent .life, to the most favorable season of 
the year. There was a period of a few weeks every sum- 
mer, when the trades blew much less violently than was 
usually the case, and when, indeed, it was no unusual thing 
to have shifts of wind, as well as light breezes. All this the 
Indians perfectly well understood, for they were bold navi- 
gators, when the sizes and qualities of their vessels were 
considered. As it appeared, the voyage from the group to 
Eancocus Island, a distance of fully a hundred leagues, 
was effected without any accident, and the whole of that 
formidable force was safely landed at the very spot where 
Betts had encamped on his arrival out with the colonists. 
Nearly a month had been passed in exploring the mount- 
ain, th^:, first considerable eminence most of the Indians 


248 


THE CRATER 


bad ever beheld, and in making their preparations for 
further proceedings. During that time, hundreds had seen! 
Vulcan’s Peak, as well as the smoke of the volcano,^ 
though the Reef, with all its islands, lay too low to be dis-i 
ceriied from such a distance. The Peak was now the 
great object to be attained, for there it was universally be- 
lieved that Betto (meaning Betts) and his companions had 
concealed themselves and their much-coveted treasures. 
Rancocus Island was well enough, and Waally made all 
his plans for colonizing it at once, but the other, and dis- 
tant mountain, no doubt was the most desii’able territory to 
possess, or white men would not have brought their women 
so far in order to occupy it. 

As a matter of course, Unus and Peggy learned the 
nature of the intended proceedings. The last might have 
been content to wait for the slower movements of the ex- 
pedition, had she not ascertained that threats of severely 
punishing the two deserters, one of whom was her own 
husband, had been heard to fall from the lips of the dread 
Waally himself. No sooner, therefore, did this faithful 
Indian girl become mistress of the intended plan, than she 
gave her brother no peace until he consented to put off 
into the ocean with her, in a canoe she had brought from 
home, and which was her own property. Had not Unus 
been disaffected to his new chief, this might not so easily 
have been done, but the young Indian was deadly hostile 
to Waally, and was a secret friend of Ooroony ; a state of 
feeling which disposed him to desert the former, at the 
first good opportunity. 

The two adventurers put off from Rancocus Island just 
at dark, and paddled in the direction that they believed 
would carry them to the Peak. It will be remembered 
that the last could not be seen from the ocean, until 
about half the passage between the islands was made, 
though it ‘was plainly apparent from the heights of Ran- 
cocus, already mentioned. Next morning, when day re- 
turned, the smoke of the volcano was in sight, but no 
Peak. There is little question that the canoe had been 
set too much to the southward, and was diagonally reced- 


THE CRATER. 


249 


ing from its desired point of debarkation, instead of ap- 
proaching it. Towards the smoke Unus and his sister 
continued to paddle, and, after thirty-six hours of nearly 
uiiremitted labor, they succeeded in landing at the volcano, 
ignorant of its nature, awe-struck and trembling, but com- 
pelled to seek a refuge there, as the land-bird rests its tired 
wing on the ship's spars, when driven from the coast by 
the unexpected gale. When discovered, Peggy and her 
brother were about to take a fresh start from their resting- 
place, the Peak being visible from the volcano. 

Mark questioned these two friends concerning the con- 
templated movement of Waally, with great minuteness, 
Unsus was intelligent for a savage, and appeared to under- 
stand himself perfectly. He was of opinion that his coun- 
trymen would' endeavor to cross, the first calm day, or the 
'first day when the breeze should be light ; and that was 
just the time when our colonists did not desire to meet the 
savages out at sea. He described the party as formidable 
by numbers and resolution, though possessing few arms 
besides those of savages. There were half a dozen old 
muskets in the canoes, with a small supply of ammunition ; 
but, since the desertion of Jones and Peters, no one re- 
mained who knew how to turn these weapons to much 
account. Nevertheless the natives were so numerous, pos- 
sessed so many weapons that were formidable in their own 
modes of fighting, and were so bent on success, that Unus 
did not hesitate to give it as his opinion, the colonists 
would act wisely in standing off for some other island, if 
they knew where another lay, even at the cost of abandon- 
ing most of their effects. 

But our governor had no idea of following any such 
advice. He was fully aware of the strength of his posi- 
tion on the Peak, and felt no disposition to abandon it. 
His great apprehension was for the Reef, where his terri- 
tories were much more assailable. It was not easy to see 
how the crater, and ship, and the schooner on the stocks, 
and all the other property that, in the shape of hogs, poul- 
try, etc., was scattered far and wide in that group, could be 
protectcid against a hundred canoes, by any force at his 


250 


THE CRATER. 


commaiid. Even with the addition of Unus, who took 
service at once, with all his heart, among his new friends, 
Mark could muster but eight men ; namely himself. Hea- 
ton, Betts, Bigelow, Socrates, Peters, Jones, and Unus. To 
these might possibly be added two or three of the women, 
who might be serviceable in carrying ammunition, and as 
sentinels, while the remainder would be required to look 
after the children, to care for the stock, etc. All these 
facts passed through Mark’s mind, as Peters translated the 
communication of Unus, sentence by sentence. 

It was indispensable to come to some speedy decision. 
Peters was now happy and contented with his nice little 
Peggy, and there was no longer any necessity for pursuing 
the voyage on his account. As for the project of placing 
the hogs on Rancocus, this was certainly not the time to 
do it, even if it were now to be done at all ; we say “ now ” 
since the visits of the savages would make any species of 
property on that island, from this time henceforth, very in- 
secure. It was therefore determined to abandon the voyage, 
and to shape their course^ back to the Peak, with as little 
delay as possible. As there were indications of shell-fish, 
sea-weed, etc., being thrown ashore at the Volcano, two of 
the hogs were put ashore there to seek their fortunes. 
According to the new plan, the Neshamony made sail on 
her return passage, about an hour before the sun set. As 
was usually in that strait, the trades blew pretty fresh, and 
the boat, although it had the canoe of Unus in tow, came 
under the frowning cliffs some time before the day reap- 
peared. By the time the sun r<)se, the Neshamony was off 
the cove, into which she hastened with the least possible 
delay. It was the governor’s apprehension that his sails 
might be seen from the canoes of Waally, long before the 
canoes could be seen from his boat, and he was glad to get 
within the cover of his little haven. Once there, the dif- 
ferent crafts were quite concealed from the view of per- 
sons outside, and it now remained to be proved whether 
their cover was not so complete as effectually to baffle a 
hostile attempt to find it. ' 

The quick and unexpected return of the Neshamony 


THE CRATER. 


251 


produced a great deal of surprise on the Plain. She had 
not been seen to enter the cove, and the first intimation 
any one of the settlement had of such an occurrence, was 
the appearance of Mark before the door of the dwelling. 
Bigelow was immediately sent to the Peak with a glass, to 
look out for canoes, while Heaton was called in from the 
woods by means of a conch. In twenty minutes the coun- 
cil was regularly in session, while the men began to col- 
lect and to look to their arms. Peters and Jones were 
ordered to go down to the magazine, procure cartridges, 
i and then proceed to the batteries and load the carronades. 
In a word, orders were given to make all the arrangement* 
necessary for the occasion. 

It was not long ere a report come down from Bigelow 
It was brought by his Spanish wife, who had accompanied 
her husband to the Peak, and who came running in, half 
breathless, to say that the ocean was covered with canoes 
and catamarans ; a fieet of which was paddling directly for 
the island, being already within three leagues of it. Al- 
tliough this intelligence was expected, it certainly caused 
long faces and a deep gloom to pervade that little com- 
munity. Mark’s fears were always for the Reef, where 
there happened to be no one just at that moment but the 
black women, who were altogether insufficient to defend 
it, under the most favorable circumstances, but who were 
now without a head. There was the hope, however, of the 
Indians not seeing those low islands, which they certainly 
could not do as long as they remained in their canoes. On 
the other hand, there was the danger that some one might , 
cross from the Reef in one of the boats, a thing that was 
done as often as once a week, in which case a chase might 
ensue, and the canoes be led directly towards the spot that 
it was so desirable to conceal. Juno could sail a boat as 
well as any man among them, and, as is usually the case, 
that which she knew she could do so well, she was fond of 
doing; and she had not now been across for nearly a week. 
The cow kept at the crater gave a large mess of milk, and 
the butter produced by her means was delicious when 
eaten fresh, but did not keep quite as well in so warm a 


252 


THE CRATER. 


climate as it might have done in one that was colder, and 
Dido was ever anxious to send it to Miss Bridget, as she 
still called her mistress, by every available opportunity. The 
boat used by the negresses on such occasions was the Dido, 
a perfectly safe craft in moderate weather, but she was 
just the dullest sailer of all those owned by the colony. 
'Ehis created the additional danger of a capture, in the 
event of a chase. Taking all things into consideration 
therefore, Mark adjourned the council to the Peak, a fever- 
ish desire to look out upon the sea, causing him to be too 
uneasy where he was, to remain there in consultation with 
any comfort to himself. To the Peak, then everybody re- 
paired, with the exception of Bigelow, Peters, and Jones, 
who were now regularly stationed at the carronades to 
watch the entrance of the cove. In saying everybody, 
we include not only all the women, but even their children. 

So long as the colonists remained on the Plain, there was 
not the smallest danger of any one of them being seen 
from the surrounding ocean. This the woods, and their 
great eleyation, prevented. Nor was there much danger 
of the party in the batteries being seen, though so much 
lower, and necessarily on the side of the cliff, since a strict 
order had been given to keep out of sight, among the trees, 
where they could see everything that was going on, with- 
out being seen' themselves. But on the naked Peak it 
was different. High as it was, a man might be seen frons 
the ocean, if moving about, and the observer was tolerably 
near by. Bob had seen Mark, when his attention was 
drawn to the spot by the report of the latter’s fowling- 
piece ; and the governor had often seen Bridget, on the 
look-out for him, as he left the island, though her fluttering 
dress probably made her a more conspicuous object than 
most persons would have been. From all this,* then, the 
importance of directing the movements of the party that 
followed him became apparent to Mark, who took his 
measures accordingly. 

By the time the governor reached the Peak, having 
ascended it on its eastern side, so as to keep his person 
c<^ncealed,'the hostile fleet was plainly to be sef.n with the 


THE CRATER. 


253 


\ 

naked eye. It came on in a tolerably accurate line, or 
lines, abreasi ; being three deep, one distant from the other 
about a cable’s length. It steered directly for the centre 
of the island, whereas the cove was much nearer to its 
northern than to it southern end ; and the course showed 
that the canoes were coming on at random, having nothing 
in view but the island. 

But Mark’s eyes were turned with the greatest interest 
to the northward, or in the direction to the E-eef. As they 
came up the ascent, Bridget had communicated to him the 
fact that she expected Juno over that day, and that it was 
understood she would come quite alone. Bridget was 
much opposed to the girl’s taking this risk : but Juno had 
now done it so often successfully, that nothing short of a 
positive command to the contrary would be likely to stop 
her. This command, most unfortunately, as Mark now felt, 
had not been given ; and great was his concern when Betts 
declared that he saw a white speck to the northward, which 
looked like a sail. The glass was soon leveled in that 
direction, and no doubt any longer remained on the sub- 
ject. It was the Dido, steering across from the Beef, dis- 
tant then about ten miles ; and she might be expected to 
arrive in about two hours ! In other words, judging by the 
progress of the canoes, there might be a difference of 
merely half an hour or so between the time of the arrival 
of the boat and that of the canoes. 

This was a very serious matter; and never before had the 
council a question before it which gave its members so much 
concern, or which so urgently called for action, as this of 
the course that was now to be taken to avert a danger so 
imminent. Not only was Juno’s safety involved ; but the 
discovery of the cove and the Reef, one or both, was very 
likely to be involved in the issue, and the existence of the 
whole colony placed in extreme jeopardy. As the canoes 
were still more than a league from the island. Bob thought 
there was time to go out with the Bridget, and meet the 
Dido, when both boats could ply to windward until it was 
dark ; after which, they might go into the Reef, or come 
into the cove, as circumstances permitted. The governor 


254 


THE CRATER. 


was about tc acquiesce in this suggestion, little as he liked 
it, when a new proposition was made, that at first seemed 
so strange that no one believed it could be put in execution, 
but to which all assented in the end. 

Among the party on the Peak were Unus and Peggy. 
The later understood a good deal of English, and that 
which she did not comprehend, in the course of the dis- 
cussions on this interesting occasion, Bob, who had picked 
up something of the language of her group, explained to 
her, as well as he could. After a time, the girl ran down 
to the battery and brought up her husband, through whom 
the proposal was made that, at first, excited so much won- 
der. Peggy had told Unus what was going on, and had 
pointed out to him the boat of Juno, now sensibly drawing 
nearer to the island, and Unus volunteered to swim, out 
and meet the girl, so as to give her timely warning, as well 
as instructions how to proceed ! 

Although Mark, and Heaton, and Bridget, and all pres- 
ent indeed, were fully aware that the natives of the South 
Seas could, and often did pass hours in the water, this pro- 
posal struck them all, at first, as so wild, that no one be- 
lieved it could be accepted. Reflection, however, did its 
usual office, and wrought a change in these opinions. Peters 
assured the governor that he had often known Unus to 
swim from island to island in the group, and that on the 
score of danger to him, there was not the least necessity of 
feeling any uneasiness. He did not question the Indian’s 
power to swim the entire distance to the Reef, should it be 
necessary. 

Another difficulty arose, however, when the first was 
overcome. Unus could speak no English, and how was he 
to communicate with Juno, even after he had entered her 
boat ? The girl, moreover, was both resolute and strong, 
as her present expedition sufficiently proved, and would be 
very apt to knock a nearly naked savage on the head, when 
she saw him attempting to enter her boat. From this last 
opinion, however, Bridget dissented. Juno was kind-hearted, 
and would be more disposed, she thought, to pick up a man 
found in the water at sea, than to injure him. But Juna 


THE CRATER. 


255 


could read writing. Bridget herself had taught her slaves 
to read and write, and Juno in particular was a sort of 

expert, in her way. She wrote and read half the nigger- 
letters of Bristol, previously to quitting America. She 
would now write a short note, which would put the girl on 
her guard, and give her confidence in Unus. Juno knew 
the whole history of Peters and Peggy, having taken great 
interest in the fate of the latter. To own the truth, the 
girl had manifested a very creditable degree of principle 
on the subject, for Jones had tried to persuade his friend 
to take Juno, a nice, tidy, light-colored black, to wife, and 
to forget Peggy, when Juno repelled the attempt with 
spirit and principle. It is due to Peters, moreover to add 
that he was always true to his island bride. But the oc- 
currence had made Juno acquainted with the whole history 
of Peggy ; and Bridget, in the few lines she now wrote to 
the girl, took care to tell her that the Indian was the 
brother of Peggy. In that capacity, he would be almost 
certain of a friendly reception. The rest of the note was 
merely an outline of their situation, with an injunction to 
let Unus direct the movements. 

No sooner was this important note written, than Unus 
hastened down to the cove. He was accompanied by 
Mark, Peters, and Peggy ; the former to give his instruc- 
tions, and the two latter to act as interpreters. Nor was 
the sister without feeling for the brother on the occasion. 
She certainly did not regard his enterprise as it would have 
been looked upon by a civilized woman, but she manifested 
a proper degree of interest in its success. Her parting 
words to her brother, were advice to keep well to wind- 
ward, in order that, as he got near the boat, he might float 
down upon it with the greater facility, aided by the waves. 

The young Indian was soon ready. The note was se- 
cured in his hair, and moving gently in the water, he swam 
out of the cove with the ease, if not with the rapidity of a 
fish. Peggy clapped her hands and laughed, and other- 
wise manifested a sort of childish delight, as if pleased that 
one of her race should so early make himself useful to the 
countrymen of her husband. She and Peters repaired to 


256 


THE CRATER. 


the battery, which was the proper station of the man, while 
Mark went nimbly up the Stairs, on his way to the Peak. 
And here we might put in a passing word on the subject of 
these ascents and descents. The governor had now been 
accustomed to them more than a twelve-month, and he found 
that the effect they produced on the muscles of his lower 
limbs was absolutely surprising. He could now ascend the 
Stairs in half the time he had taken on his first trials, and 
he could carry burdens up and down them, that at first he 
would not have dreamed of attempting even to take on his 
shoulders. The same was true with all the colonists, male 
and female, who began to run about the cliffs like so many 
goats — chamois would be more poetical — and who made 
as light of the Stairs as the governor himself. 

When Mark reached the Peak again, he found matters 
drawing near to a crisis. The canoes w^ere within a league 
of the island, coming on steadily in line, and paddling with 
measured sweeps of their paddles. As yet, the sail of 
Juno’s boat had escaped them. This was doubtless owing 
to their lowness in the water, and the distance that still 
separated them. The Dido was about five miles from the 
northern end of the island, while the fleet was some five 
more to the southward of it. This placed the two almost 
ten miles apart ; though each seemed so near, seen from 
the elevation of the Peak, that one might have fancied that 
he could throw a shot into either. 

Unus was the great point of interest for the momenf. 
He was just coming out clear of the island, and might be 
seen with the naked eye, in that pure atmospere, a dark 
speck floating on the undulating surface on the ocean. By 
the aid of the glass, there was no difficulty in watching his 
smallest movement. With a steady and sinewy stroke of 
his arms, the young savage pursued his way, keeping to 
windward, as instructed by his sister, and making a prog- 
ress in the midst of those rolling billows that was really 
wonderful. The wind was not very fresh, nor were the 
seas high ; but the restless ocean, even in its slumbers, 
exhibits the repose of a giant, whose gentlest heavings are 
formidable and to be looked to. In one particular, our colo- 


THE CRATER. 


257 


nists were favore<l. Owing to some accidental circum- 
stances of position, a current set round the northern end 
of the island, and diffused itself on its western side by ex- 
panding towards the south. This carried the canoes from 
the boat and the cove, and insomuch increased Juno’s 
chance of escape. 

The meeting between Unus and the boat took place 
when the latter was within a league of the land. As the 
sailing direction? were for every craft to fall in with the 
island rather to windward of the Peak, on account of the 
very current just mentioned, it wslh questionable with Ma.'k 
and Betts whether any in the canoes could now perceive 
the boat, on account of the intervening heights. It was 
pretty certain no one, as yet, had made this important dis- 
covery, for the impetuosity of savages would instantly have 
let the fact be known through their shouts and their eager- 
ness to chase. On the contrary, all remained tranquil in 
the fleet, which continued to approach the land with a 
steady but regulated movement, that looked as if a secret 
awe pervaded the savages as they drew nearer and nearer 
to that unknown and mysterious world. To them the 
approaching revelations were doubtless of vast import; 
and the stoutest heart among them must have entertained 
some such sensations as were impressed on the spirits of 
Columbus and his companions, when they drew near to the 
shores of Guanahani. 

In the mean time, Juno came confidingly on, shaping 
her course rather more to windward than usual even, on 
account of the lightness of the breeze. This effectually 
prevented her seeing or being seen from the canoes ; the 
parties diagonally drawing nearer, in utter ignorance of 
each other’s existence. As for Unas, he manoeuvred quite 
skillfully. After getting a couple of miles off the land, 
he swam directly to windward ; and it was well he did, the 
course of the boat barely permitting his getting well on 
her weather-bow, when it was time to think of boarding. 

Unus displayed great judgment in this critical part of 
the affair. So accurately did he measure distances, that 
he got alongside of the Dido, with his hand on her weather 
17 


258 


THE CRATER. 


gunwale, without Juno’s having the least idea that he was 
anywhere near her. At one effort he was in the boat ; 
and while the girl was still uttering her scream of alarm, 
he stood holding out the note, pronouncing the word 
“ Missus ” as well as he could. The girl had acquired too 
much knowledge of the habits of the South Sea islanders, 
while passing through and sojourning in the different 
groups she had visited, to be overwhelmed with the occur- 
rence. What is more, she recognized the young Indian 
at a glance ; some passages of gallantry having actually 
taken place between them during the two months Heaton 
and his party remained among Ooroony’s people. To be 
frank with the reader, the first impression of Juno was, 
that the note thus tendered to her was a love-letter, 
though its contents instantly undeceived her. The excla- 
mation and changed manner of the girl told Unus that all 
was right ; and he went quietly to work to take in the 
sail, as the most effectual method of concealing the pres- 
ence of the boat from the thousand hostile and searching 
eyes in the canoes. The moment Mark saw the canvas 
come in, he cried out “ all is well,” and descended swiftly 
from the Peak, to hasten to a point where he could give 
the necessary attentions to the movements of Waally and 
his fleet. 


THE CRATER. 


259 


CHAPTER XVII. 

Ho ! strike the flag-staff deep, Sir Baiight, — 

Ho! scatter flowers, fair maids, — 

Ho ! gunners fire a loud salute — 

Ho 1 gallants, draw your blades. 

Macaulay. 

So much time had passed in the execution of the plan 
of Unus, that the canoes were close under the cliffs, when 
the governor and his party reached the wood that fringed 
their summits, directly over the northern end of their line. 
Even this extremity of their formation was a mile or two 
to leeward of the cove, and all the craft, catamarans in- 
cluded, were drifting still farther south, under the influ- 
ence of the current. So long as this state of things con- 
tinued, there was nothing for the colonists to apprehend, 
since they knew landing at any other spot than the cove 
was out of the question. The strictest orders had been 
given for every one to keep concealed, a task that was 
by no means difficult, the whole Plain being environed 
with woods, and its elevation more than a thousand feet 
above the sea. In short, nothing but a wanton exposure 
of the person, could render it possible for one on the 
water to get a glimpse of another on the heights above 
him. 

The fleet of Waally presented an imposing sight. Not 
only were his canoes large, and well filled with men, but 
they were garnished with the usual embellishments of sav- 
age magnificence. Feathers and flags, and symbols of war 
and power were waving and floating over the prows of 
most of them, while the warriors they contained were gay 
in their trappings. It was apparent, however, to the mem- 
bers of the council, who watched every movement of the 
fleet with the utmost vigilance^ that their foes were op- 
pressed with doubts concerning the character of the place 


THE CRATER. 


2i\0 


they had ventured so far to visit. The smoke of the Vol- 
cano was visible to them, beyond a doubt, and here was a 
wall of rock interposed between them and the accomplish- 
ment of their desire to land. ' In this last respect Ranco- 
cus Island offered a shore very different from that of Vul- 
can’s Peak. The first, in addition to the long, low point ^ 
so often mentioned, had everywhere a beach of some sort 
or other ; while, on the last, the waves of the Pacific rose 
and fell as against a precipice, marking their power merely 


by a slight discoloration of the iron-bound coast. /Those 


superstitious and ignorant beings naturally would connect 
all these unusual circumstances with some supernatural ^ 
agencies ; and Heaton early gave it as his opinion that ^ 
Waally, of whom he had some personal knowledge, was 
hesitating, and doubtful of the course he ought to pursue, 
on account of this feeling of superstition. When this 
opinion was expressed, the governor suggested the expe- 
diency of firing one of the carronades, under the supposi- 
tion that the roar of a gun, and most especiall}" the echo, 
of which there was one in particular that was truly ter- 
rific, might have the effect to frighten away the whole 
party. Heaton was in doubt about the result, for Waally 
and his people knew something of artillery, though of 
echoes they could not know anything at all. Nothing like 
an echo, or indeed a hill, was to be found in the low coral 
islands of their group, and the physical agents of produc- 
ing such sounds were absolutely wanting among them. It 
might be that something like an echo had been heard at 
Rancocus Island, but it must have been of a very differ- 
ent calibre from that which Heaton and Mark were in the 
habit of making for the amusement of the females, by fir- 
ing their fowling-pieces down the Stairs. As yet neither ' 
of the guns had been fired from the proper point, which 
was the outer battery, or that on the shelf of rock, though 
a very formidable roaring had been made by the report of 
the gun formerly fired, as an experiment to ascertain how 
far i^ would command the entrance of the cove. After 
a good deal of discussion, it was decided to try the exper- 
iment, and Betts, who knew all abou' the means necessary 


THE CRATER. 


261 


to produce the greatest reverberations, was dispatched 
to the shelf-battery with instructions to scale its gun, by 
pointing it along the cliff and making all the uproar he 
could. 

This plan was carried out just as Waally had assem- 
bled his chiefs around his own canoe, whither he had 
called them by an order, to consult on the manner in 
which the entires coast of the island ought to be examined, 
that a landing might be effected. The report of the gun 
came quite unexpectedly to all parties ; the echo, which 
rolled along the cliffs for miles, being absolutely terrific ! 
Owing to the woods and intervening rocks, the natives 
could see no smoke, which added to their surprise, and was 
doubtless one reason they did not, at first, comprehend the 
long, cracking, thundering sounds that, as it might be, 
rolled out towards them from the island. A cry arose that 
the strange rocks were speaking, and that the Gods of the 
place were angry. This was followed by a general and 
confused flight ; — the canoes paddling away as if their 
people were apprehensive of being buried beneath the 
tumbling rocks. For half an hour nothing was seen but 
frantic efforts to escape, nothing heard but the dip of tli40 
paddle and the wash of its rise. 

Thus far the plan of the governor had succeeded even 
beyond' his expectations. Could he get rid of these sav- 
ages without bloodshed, it would afford him sincere delight, 
it being repugnant to all his feelings to sweep away rows 
of such ignorant men before the murderous fire of his can- 
non. While he and Heaton were congratulating each 
other on the encouraging appearances, a messenger came 
down from the Peak, where Bridget remained on the look- 
out, to report that the boat had drifted in, and was getting 
close under the cliffs, on the northern end of the island, 
which was in fact coming close under the Peak itself. A 
signal to push for the cove had been named to Juno, and 
Bridget desired to know whether it ought to be made, else 
the boat would shortly be too near in to see it. The gov- 
ernor thought the moment favorable, for the canoes were 
still paddling in a body away from the spot whence the 


262 


THE CRATER. 


roar had proceeded, and their course carried tliem to thfc 
southward and westward, while Unus would approach from 
the northward and eastward. Word was sent, accordingly, ! 
to make the signal. | 

Bridget no sooner received this order than she showed ! 
the flag, which was almost immediately answered by set- j 
ting the boat’s rail. Unus now evidently took the direc- | 
tion of matters on board the Dido. It is probable he ap- | 
predated the effect of the gun and its echo, the first of 
which he fully comprehended, though the last was as great 
and as awful a mystery to him, as to any one of his coun- 
trymen. Nevertheless, he imputed the strange and fearful 
roar of the cliffs to some control of the whites over the 
power of the hills, and regarded it as a friendly roar, even 
while he trembled. Not so would it be with his country- 
men, did he well know ; they would retire before it ; and 
the signal being given at that instant, the young Indian 
had no hesitation about the course he ought to take. 

Unus understood sailing a boat perlectly well. On 
setting his sail, he stood on in the Dido until he was 
obliged to bear up on account of the cliffs. This brought 
him so close to the rocks as greatly to diminish the chances 
of being seen. There both wind and current aided his 
progress ; the first drawing round the end of the island, 
the coast of which it followed in a sort of eddy, for 
some time, and the latter setting down towards the cove, 
which was less than two miles from the north bluff. In 
twenty minutes after he had made sail, Unus was en- 
tering the secret little harbor, Waally and his fleet being 
quite out o^f sight from one as low as the surface of the 
ocean, still paddling away to the southwest, as hard as they 
could. 

Great was the exultation of the colonists, at this escape 
of Juno’s. It even surpassed their happiness at the retreat 
of their invaders. If the boat were actually unseen, the 
governor believed the impression was sufficient to keep the 
savages aloof for a long time, if not forever ; since they 
would not fail to ascribe the roar, and the smoke of the 
volcano, and all the mysteries of the place, to supernatural 


THE CRATER. 


263 


agencies. If the sail had been seen, however, it was pos* 
sible that, on reflection, their courage might revive, and 
more would be seen of them. Unus was extol’ ed by 
everybody, and seemed perfectly happy. Peggy com- 
municated his thoughts, which were every way in favor of 
his new friends. Waally he detested. He denounced him 
as a ruthless tyrant, and declared he would prefer death 
to submission to his exactions. Juno highly approved of 
all his sentiments, and was soon known as a sworn friend 
of Peggy’s. This hatred of tyranny is innate in man, but 
it is necessary to distinguish between real oppression and 
those restraints which are wholesome, if not indispensable 
to human happiness. As for the canoes, they were soon 
out of sight in the southwestern board, running off, under 
their sails, before the wind. Waally, himself, was too 
strong-minded and resolute, to be as much overcome by 
the echo, as his companions ; but, so profound and general 
! was the awe excited, that he did not think it advisable to 
I persevere in his projects, at a moment so discouraging, 
j Acquiescing in the wishes of all around him, the expedi- 
j tion drew off from the island, making the best of its way 
I back to the place from which it had last sailed. All these 
circumstances became known to the colonists, in the end, 
as well as the reasoning and the more minute incidents 
that influenced the future movements. For the time be- 
ing, however, Woolston and his friends were left to their 
own conjectures on the subject; which, however, were not 
greatly out of the way. It was an hour after Juno and 
Unus were safe up on the Plain, before the look-outs at the 
Peak finally lost sight of the fleet, which, when last seen, 
was steering a course that would carry it between the 
volcano and Rancocus Island, and might involve it in se- 
rious difliculties in the succeeding night. There was no 
land in sight from the highest points on Rancocus Island, 
nor any indications of land, in a southwesterly direction ; 
and, did the canoes run past the latter, the imminent dan- 
ger of a general catastrophe would be the consequence. 
Once at sea, under an uncertainty as to the course to be 
steered, the situation of those belonging to the expedition 


264 


THE CRATER. 


would be painful, indeed, nor could the results be foieseen 
Waally, nevertheless, escaped the danger. Edging off to 
keep aloof from the mysterious smoke, which troubled 
his followers almost as much as the mysterious echoes, 
the party, most fortunately for themselves, got a distant 
view of the mountains for which they were running, and 
altered their course in sufficient time to reach their place 
of destination by the return of light the succeeding morn- 
ing. 

All thoughts of the expedition to Rancocus Island were 
temporarily abandoned by the governor and his council. 
Mark was greatly disappointed, nor did his regrets cease 
with disappointment only. Should Waally leave a portion 
of his people on that island, a collision must occur, sooner 
or later ; there being a moral impossibility of the two colo- 
nies continuing friends while so near each other. The 
nature of an echo would be ascertained, before many 
~ months, among the hills of Rancocus Island, and when 
that came to be understood, there was an end of the sacred 
character that the recent events had conferred on the Peak. 
Any straggling vagabond, or runaway from a' ship, might 
purchase a present importance by explaining things, and 
induce the savages to renew their efforts. In a word, there 
was the moral certainty that hostilities must be renewed 
ere many months, did Waally remain so near them, and 
the question now seriously arose, whether it were better 
to pi-ess the advantage already obtained, and drive him 
back to his group, or to remain veiled behind the sort of 
mystery that at present enshrouded them. These points 
were gravely debated, and became subjects of as great 
interest among the colonists, as ever banks, or abolitionism, 
or antimasonry, or free-trade, or any other of the crotch- 
ets of the day, could possibly be in America. Many 
were the councils that were convened to settle this impor- 
tant point of policy, which, after all, like most other mat- 
ters of moment, was decided more by the force of circum- 
stances, than by any of the deductions of human reason. 
The weakness of the colony and the dangers to its exist- 
ence, disposed of the question of an aggressive war. 


THE CRATER. 


265 


Waally was too strong to be assailed by a dozen enemies, 
and all the suggestions of prudence were in favor of re- 
maining quiet, until the Friend Abraham White could,' at 
least, be made available in the contest. Suppoited by 
that vessel, indeed, matters would be changed ; and Mark 
thought it would be in his power to drive in Waally, and 
even to depose him and place Ooroony at the head of the 
natives once more. To finish and launch the schooner, 
therefore, was now the first great object, and, after a week 
of indecision and consultations, it was determined to set 
about that duty with vigor. 

It will be easily seen, that the getting of the Abraham 
into the water was an affair of good deal of delicacy, 
under the circumstances. The strait between the Peak 
and Cape South was thirty miles wide, and it was twenty 
more to the crater. Thus the party at work on the vessel 
would be fully fifty miles from the main abodes of the 
colony, and thrown quite out of the affair should another 
invasion be attempted. As for bringing the Neshamony, 
the Dido, the Bridget, and the lighter, into the combat, 
everybody was of opinion it would be risking too much. 
It is true, one of the swivels was mounted on the former, 
and might be of service, but the natives had got to be too 
familiar with fire-arms to render it prudent to rely on 
the potency of a single swivel, in a conflict against a 
force so numerous, and one led by a spirit as determined 
as that of Waally ’s was known to be. All idea of fighting 
at sea, therefore, until the schooner was launched, was out 
of the question, and every energy was turned to effect the 
latter most important object. A separation of the forces 
of the colony was inevitable, in the meanwhile ; and re- 
liance must be placed on the protection of Providence., for 
keeping the enemy aloof until the vessel was ready for act 
ive service. 

The labor requiring as much physical force as could 
be mustered, the arrangement was settled in council and 
approved by the governor, on the following plan, viz. : — ■ 
Mark was to proceed to the Reef with all the men that 
could be spared, and a portion of the females. It wai 


266 


^ THE CRATER. 


not deemed safe, however, to leave the Peak with less than 
three defenders, Heaton, Peters, and Unus being chosen 
for that important station ; the former commanding, of 
course. Mark, Betts, Bigelow, Socrates, and Jones, formed 
the party for the Reef, to which were attached Bridget, 
Martha, Teresa, and the blacks. Bigelow went across, 
indeed, a day or two before the main party sailed, in order 
to look after Dido, and to get his work forward as fast as 
possible. When all was ready, and that was when ten 
days had gone by after the retreat of Waally, without 
bringing any further tidings from him, the governor sailed 
in the Neshamony, having the Bridget and the lighter in 
company, leaving the Dido for the convenience of Heaton 
and his set. Signals were agreed on, though the distance 
was so great as to render them of little use, unless a boat 
were mid-channel. A very simple and ingenious ex- 
pedient, nevertheless, was suggested by Mark in con- 
nection with this matter. A single tree grew so near 
' the Peak as to be a conspicuous object from the ocean ; 
it was not large, though it could be seen at a great dis- 
tance, more particularly in the direction of the Reef. 
The governor intimated an intention to send a boat daily 
far enough out into the strait to ascertain whether this 
tree were, or were not standing; and Heaton was in- 
structed to have it felled as soon as he had throughly as- 
certained that Waally was abroad again with hostile in- 
tentions. Other signals were also agreed on, in order 
to regulate the movements of the boats, in the event 
of their being called back to the Peak to repel an in- 
vasion. 

With the foregoing arrangements completed and thor- 
oughly understood, the governor set sail for the Reef, ac- 
companied by his little squadron. It was an exquisitely 
beautiful day, one in which all the witchery of the climate 
developed itself, soothing the nerves and animating the 
spirits. Bridget had lost most of her apprehensions of the 
natives, and could laugh with her husband and play with 
her child almost as freely as before the late events. Every- 
body, indeed, was in high spirits, the launching of the 


THE CRATER. 267 

schooner being regarded as a thing that would give tliem 
complete command of the adjacent seas. 

Tlie passage was short, a fresh breeze blowing, and four 
h^urs after quitting the cliffs, the Neshamony was under 
the lee of Cape South, and heading for the principal inlet. 
As the craft glided along, in perfectly smooth water now, 
Mark noted the changes that time was making on those 
rocks, which had so lately emerged from the depths of the 
ocean. The Prairie, in particular, was every way worthy 
of his attention. A mass of sea- weed, which rested on a 
sort of stratum of mud immediately after the eruption, had 
now been the favorite pasturage of the hogs for more than 
a twelve-month. These hogs at the present time exceeded 
fifty full-grown animals, and there were twice that number 
of grunters at their heels. Then the work they had done 
on the Prairie was incredible. Not less than hundreds of 
acres had they rooted over, mixing the sea-weed with the 
mud, and fast converting the whole into soil. The rains 
had washed away the salt, or converted it into manure, as 
well as contributing to the more rapid decay of the vege- 
table substances. In that climate the changes are very 
rapid, and Mark saw that another year or two would con- 
vert the whole of that vast range, which had been formerly 
computed at a surface of a thousand acres, into very re- 
spectable pastures, if not into meadows. Of meadows, 
however, there was very little necessity in that latitude ; 
the eternal summer that reigned furnishing pasturage the 
yea/ round. The necessary grasses might be wanting to 
seed down so large a surface, but those which Socrates 
had put in were well-rooted, and it was pretty certain they 
would, sooner or later, spread themselves over the whole 
field. In defiance of the hogs, and their increasing in- 
roads, large patches were already green and flourishing. 
What is more, young trees were beginning to show them- 
selves along the margin of the channels. Heaton had 
brought over from Betto’s group several large panniers 
made of green willows, and these Socrates had cut into 
strips, and thrust into the mud. Almost without an excep- 
tion they had struck out roots, and never ceasing, day or 


268 


THE CRATER. 


night, .u grow, they were already mostly of the height of a 
man. Four or five years would convert them into so many 
beautiful, if not very useful trees. 

Nor was this all. Heaton, under the influence of his 
habits, had studied the natures of the different trees he had 
met with on the other islands. The cocoa-nut, in particu- i 
lar, abounded in both groups, and finding it was a tree that ] 
much affected low land and salt water, he had taken care 
to set out various samples of his roots and fruits, on cer- 
tain detached islets near this channel, where the soil and 
situation induced him to believe they would flourish. Sea- 
Sand he was of opinion was the most favorable for the 
growth of this tree, and he had chosen the sites of his 
plantations with a view to those advantages. On the Peak 
cocoa-nuts were to be found, but they were neither very 
fine, nor in very large quantities. So long as Mark had 
that island to himself, the present supply would more than 
equal the demand, but with the increase of the colony a 
greater number of the trees would become very desirable. 
Five or six years would be needed to produce the fruit- 
bearing tree, and the governor was pleased to find that the 
growth of one of those years had been already secured. 
In the case of tliose he had himself planted, in and on the 
crater, near three years had contributed to their growth, 
and neither the Guano nor Loam Island having been for- 
gotten, many of tliem were now thirty feet high. As he 
approached the crater, on that occasion, he looked at those 
promising fruits of his early and provident care for the 
future with great satisfaction, for seldom was the labor ■- 
of man better rewarded. Mark well knew the value of , 
this tree, which was of use in a variety of ways, in addi- 
tion to the delicious and healthful fruit it bears ; delicious 
and healthful when eaten shortly after it is separated from 
the tree. The wood of the kernel could be polished, and . 
converted into bowls, that were ornamental as well as use- 
ful. The husks made a capital cordage, and a very re- 
spectable sail-cloth, being a good substitute for hemp, 
though hemp, itself, was a plant that might be grown on 
the prairies to an almost illimitable extent. The leaves 


THE CRa/EB. 


269 


were excellent for thatching, as well as for making brooms, 
mats, hammocks, baskets, and a variety of such articles, 
while the trunks could be converted into canoes, gutters, 
and timber generally. There was also one other expensive 
use of this tree, which the governor had learned from Hea- 
ton. While Bridget was still confined to the ship, after 
the birth of her daughter, Mark had brought her a dish 
of greens, which she pronounced the most delicious of any- 
thing in its way she had ever tasted. It was composed of 
the young and delicate leaves of the new growth, or of the 
summit of the cocoa-nut tree, somewhat resembling the 
artichoke in their formation, though still more exquisite in 
taste. But the tree from which this treat was obtained 
died, — a penalty that must ever be paid to partake of that 
dish. As soon as Bridget learned this, she forbade the 
cutting of any more for her use, at least. All the boats 
got into port in good season, and the Reef once more be- 
came a scene of life and activity. The schooner was soon 
completed, and it only remained to put her into the water. 
This work was already commenced by Bigelow, and the 
governor directed everybody to lend a hand in effecting 
so desirable an object. Bigelow had all his materials 
ready, and so perseveringly did our colonists work, that 
the schooner was all ready to be put into the water on the 
evening of the second day. The launch was deferred only 
to have the benefit of daylight. That afternoon Mark, ac- 
companied by his wife, had gone in the Bridget, his favorite 
boat, to look for the signal tree. He went some distance 
into the strait, ere he was near enough to get a sight of 
it even with the glass ; when he did procure a view, there 
it was precisely as he had last seen it. Putting the helm 
of the boat up, the instant he was assured of this fact, the 
governor wore short round, making the best of his way 
back to the crater, again. The distances, it will be re- 
membered, were considerable, and it required time to 
make the passage. The sun was setting as Mark was run- 
ning along the channel to the Reef, the young man point- 
ing out to his charming wife the growth of the trees, the 
tints of the evening sky, the* drove of hogs, the extent of 


270 


THE CRATER. 


his new meadows, and such other objects as would be 
likely to interest both, in the midst of such a scene. The 
boat rounded a point where a portion of the hogs had been 
sleeping, and as it came sweeping up, the animals rose in 
a body, snuffed the air, and began scampering off in the 
way conformable to their habits, Mark laughing and point- 
ing with his fingers to draw Bridget's attention to their 
antics. 

“ There are more of the creatures,” said Bridget ; 
“ yonder, on the farther side of the Prairie ; I dare say 
the two parties will join each other, and have a famous 
scamper, in company.” 

“ More ! ” echoed Mark ; '' that can hardly be, as we 
passed some thirty of them several miles to the southward. 
What is it you see, dearest, that you mistake for hogs ? ” 

“ Why, yonder — more than a mile from us ; on the oppo- 
site side of the Prairie and near the water, in the other 
channel.” 

“ The other is not a channel at all ; it is a mere bay that 
leads to nothing ; so none of our boats or people can be 
there. The savages, as I am your husband, Bridget ! ” 

Sure enough, the objects which Bridget had mistaken 
for mere hogs, were in truth the heads and shoulders of 
some twenty Indians who were observing the movements of 
the boat from positions taken on the other side of the plain, 
BO as to conceal all but the upper halves of their bodies. 
They had two canoes ; war canoes, moreover ; but these 
were the whole party, at that point at least. 

This was a most grave discovery. The governor had 
hoped the Reef, so accessible on every side by means of 
canoes, would, for years at least, continue to be a terra 
incognita to the savages. On this ignorance of the natives 
would much of its security depend, for the united forces 
of the colonists could scarcely suffice to maintain the place 
against the power of Waally. The matter as it was, called 
for all his energies, and for the most prompt measures. 

The first step was to apprise the people at the Reef of 
the proximity of these dangerous neighbors'. As the boat 
was doubtless seen, its sails* rising above the land, there 


THE CRATER. 


271 


was no motive in changing its course, or for attempting to 
conceal it. The crater, ship, and schooner on the stocks, 
were all in sight of the savages at that moment, though not 
less than two leagues distant, where they doubtless ap- 
peared indistinct and confused. The ship might produce 
an influence in one or two ways. It might inflame the cu- 
pidity of Waally, under the hope of possessing so much 
treasure, and tempt him on to hasten his assault ; or it 
might intimidate him by its imagined force, vessels rarely 
visiting the islands of the Pacific without being prepared 
to defend themselves. The savages would not be likely to 
comprehend the true condition of the vessel, but would nat- 
urally suppose, that she had a full crew, and possessed the 
usual means of annoying her enemies. All this occurred 
to the governor in the first five minutes after his discovery, 
while his boat was gliding onwards towards her haven. 

Bridget behaved admirably. She trembled a little at 
first, and pressed her child to her bosom with more than 
the usual warmth, but her self-command was soon regained, 
and from that instant, Mark found in her a quick, ingen- 
ious, and useful assistant and counselor. Her faculties 
and courage seemed to increase with the danger, and so 
far from proving an incumbrance, as might naturally 
enough have been expected, she was not only out of the 
way, as respects impediments, but she soon became of real 
use, and directed the movements of the females with almost 
as much skill and decision as Mark directed those of their 
husbands. 

The boat did not reach the Reef until dusk, or for an 
hour after the savages had been seen. The colonists had 
just left their work, and the evening being cool and re- 
freshing after a warm summer’s day, they were taking theii 
suppers under a tent or awning, at no great distance P-om 
the ship-yard, when the governor joined them. This tent 
or awning had been erected for such purposes, and had 
several advantages to recommend it. It stood quite near 
the beach of the spring, and cool fresh water was always 
at hand. It had a carpet of velvet-like grass, too, a rare 
thing for the Reef, on the outside of the crater. But there 


‘i 

272 THE CRATER. l| 

were cavities on its surface, in which foreign substances j 
had collected, ind this was one of them. Sea-weed, loam, j 
dead fish, and lain-water had made a thin soil on about an ; 
acre of rocks at this spot,' and the rain constantly assisting 
vegetation, the grass seed had taken root there, and this 
being its second season, Betts had found the sward already 
sufficient for his purposes, and caused an awning to be 
spread, converting the grass into a carpet. There might 
now have been a dozen similar places on the Reef, so many 
oases in its desert, where soil had formed and grass was 
growing. No one doubted that, in time and with care, 
those then living might see most of those naked rocks 
clothed with verdure, for the progress of vegetation in such 
a climate, favored by those accidental causes which seemed 
to prevent that particular region from ever suffering by 
droughts, is almost magical, and might convert a wilderness 
into a garden in the course of a very few years. 

Mark did not disturb the happy security in which he 
found his people by any unnecessary announcement of ; 
danger. On the contrary, he spoke cheerfully, compli- 
mented them on the advanced state of their work, and took | 
an occasion to get Betts aside, when he first communicated | 
the ail-important discovery he had made. Bob was dum- 
founded at first ; for, like the governor himself, he had be- 
lieved the Reef to be one of the secret spots of the earth, 
and had never anticipated an invasion in that quarter. Re- 
covering himself, however, he was soon in a state of mind 
to consult intelligently and freely. 

“ Then we’re to expect the rep^y/es to-night ? ” said 
Betts, as soon as he had regained his voice. 

“ I think not,” answered Mark. “ The canoes I saw , 
were in the false channel, and cannot possibly reach us^ 
without returning to the western margin of the rocks and < 
entering one of the true passages. I rather think this can- ' 
not be done before morning. Daylight, indeed, may be 
absolutely necessary to them; and as the night promises to 
be dark, it is not easy to see how strangers can find their'! 
way to us, among the maze of passages they must meet. 
By land, they cannot get here from a)\y of the islands on. 


THE CRATER. 


273 


the western side of the group ; and even if landed on the 
central island, there is only one route, and that a crooked 
one, which will bring them here without the assistance of 
their canoes. We are reasonably well fortified, Betts, 
through natural agencies, on that side; and I do not appre- 
hend seeing anything more of the fellows until morning.” 

“ What a misfortin ’tis that they should ever have dis- 
covered the Reef ! ” 

“ It certainly is ; and it is one, I confess, I had not ex- 
pected. But we must take things as they are, Betts, and 
do our duty. Providence — that all-seeing Power, which 
spared you and me w^en so many of our shipmates were 
called away with short notice — Providence may still be 
pleased to look on us with favor.” 

“ That puts me in mind, Mr. Mark, of telling you some- 
thing that I have lately Farn’d from Jones, who was about 
a good deal among the savages, since his friend’s marriage 
with Peggy, and before he made his escape to join us. 
Jones says that, as near as he can find out, about three 
years ago, a ship’s launch came into Betto’s Land, as we 
call it — Waally’s Country, however, is meant; and that is 
a part of the group I never ventured into, seeing that my 
partic’lar friend, Ooroony, and Waally, was always at dag- 
gers drawn — but a ship’s launch came in there, about three 
years since, with seven living men in it. Jones could never 
get a sight of any of the men, for Waally is said to have 
kept them all hard at work for himself ; but he got tol- 
erable accounts of them, as well as of the boat in which 
they arrived.” 

Surely, Bob, you do not suppose that launch to have 
been ours, and those men to have been a part of our old 
crew ! ” exclaimed Mark, with a tumult of feeling he had 
not experienced since he had reason to think that Bridget 
was about to be restored to him. 

“Indeed, but I do, sir. The savages told Jones that the 
boat had a bird painted in its starn-sheets ; and that was 
the case with our launch, Mr. Mark, which was ornamented 
with a spread-eagle in that very spot. Then, one of the 
men was said to have a red mark on his face ; and you 
18 


274 


THK CRATER. 


may remember, sir, tliat Bill Brown bad a nat’ral brand of 
that sort. Jones only mentioned the thing this arternoon, 
as we was at work together ; and I detarmined to let you 
know all about it, at the first occasion. Depend on it, Mr. 
Woolston, some of our chaps is still living.” 

This unexpected intelligence momentarily drove the rec- 
ollection of the present danger from the governor’s mind. 
He sent for Jones, and questioned him closely touching the 
particulars of his information ; the answers he received 
certainly going far towards corroborating Betts’s idea of 
the character of the unknown men. Jones was never able 
even to get on the island where these men were said to 
be ; but he had received frequent descriptions of their 
ages, appearances, numbers, etc. It was also reported by 
those who had seen them, that several of the party had 
died of hunger before the boat reached the group ; and 
that only about half of those who had originally taken to 
the boat, which belonged to a ship that had oeen wrecked, 
hved to get ashore. The man with a mark on his face 
was represented as being very expert with tools, and was 
employed by Waally to build him a canoe that would live 
out in the gales of the ocean. This agreed perfectly with 
the trade and appearance of Brown, who had been the 
Rancocus’s carpenter, and had the sort of mark so partic- 
'ularly described. 

The time, the boat, the incidents of the wreck, meagre 
as the last were, as derived through the information of 
Jones, and all the other facts Mark could glean in a close 
examination of the man’s statements, went to confirm the 
impression that a portion of those who had been carried to 
leeward in the Rancocus’s launch, had escaped with their 
lives, and were at that moment prisoners in the power of 
the very savage chief who now threatened his colony with 
destruction. 

But the emergency did not admit of any protracted in- 
quiry into, or any consultation on the means necessary to 
relieve their old shipmates from a fate so miserable.. Cir- 
cumstances required that the governor should now give his 
attention to the important concerns immediately before 


him. 


THE CRATER. 


275 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

To whom belongs this valley fair, 

That sleeps beneath the filmy air, 

Even like a living thing ? 

Silent as infant at the breast. 

Save a still sound that speaks of rest. 

That streamlet’s murmuring ? 

Wilson. 

When the governor had communicated to his people 
that the savages were actually among the islands of their 
own group, something very like a panic came over them. 
A few minutes, however, sufficed to restore a proper de- 
gree of confidence, when the arrangements necessary to 
their immediate security were entered into. As some at- 
tention had previously been bestowed on the fortifications 
of the crater, that place was justly deemed the citadel of 
the Reef. Some thought the ship would be the most easily 
defended, on account of the size of the crater, and because 
it had a natural ditch around it, but so much property was 
accumulated in and around the crater that it could not be 
abandoned without a loss to which the governor had no 
idea of submitting. The gate of the crater was nothing in 
the way of defense, it is true ; but one of the carronades 
had been planted so as to command it, and this was thought 
sufficient for repelling all ordinary assaults. It has been 
said, already, that the outer wall of the crater was perpen- 
dicular at its base, most probably owing to the waves of 
the ocean in that remote period when the whole Reef was 
washed by them in every gale of wind. This perpendicular 
portion of the rock, moreover, was much harder than the 
ordinary surface of the Summit, owing in all probability 
to the same cause. It was even polished in appearance, 
and in general was some eighteen or twenty feet in height, 
with the exception of the two or three places, by one of 


276 


THE CRATER. 


which Mark and Betts had clambered up on their first 
visit to the Summit. These places, always small, and 
barely sufficient to allow of a man’s finding footing on 
them, had long been picked away, in order to prevent the 
inroads of Kitty, and when the men had turned their at- 
tention to rendering the place secure against a sudden in- 
road, they being the only points where an enemy could get 
up, without resorting to ladders or artificial assistance, had, 
by means of additional labor, been rendered as' secure as 
all the rest of the “ outer wall,” as the base of the crater 
was usually termed among them. It was true, that civil- 
ized assailants, who had the ordinary means at command, 
would soon have mastered this obstacle ; but savages would 
not be likely to come prepared to meet it. The schooner, 
with her cradle and ways, had required all the loose timber, 
to the last stick, and the enemy was not likely to procure 
any supplies* from the ship-yard. Two of the carronades 
were on the Summit, judiciously planted ; two were on 
board the Abraham, as was one of the long sixes, and the 
remainder of the guns (three at the rock excepted) were 
still on board the ship. 

Mark divided his forces for the night. As Bridget ha- 
bitually lived in the Rancocus’s cabins, he did not derange 
her household at all, but merely strengthened her crew, by 
placing Bigelow and Socrates on board her ; each with his 
family ; while Betts assumed the command of the crater, 
having for his companion Jones. These were small garri- 
sons; but the fortresses were strong, considering all the 
Jrcumstances,'\and the enemy were uncivilized, knowing 
but little of fire-arms. By nine o’clock everything was 
arranged, and most of the women and children were on 
their beds, though no one there undressed that night. 

Mark and Betts met, by agreement, alongside of the 
schooner, as soon as their respective duties elsewhere would 
allow. As the Reef proper was an island, they knew no 
enemy could find his way on it without coming by water, 
or by passing over the narrow bridge which has already 
been mentioned as crossing the little strait near the spring. 
This>endered them tolerably easy for the moment, though 


THE CRATER. 


277 


Mark had assured his companion it was not possible for 
the canoes to get to the Reef under several hours. Neither 
of the men could sleep, however, and they thought it as 
well to be on the look-out, and in company, as to be tossing 
about in their berths, or hammocks, by themselves. The 
conversation turned on their prospects, almost as a matter 
of course. 

“ We are somewhat short-handed, sir, to go to quarters 
ag’in them vagabonds,” observed Betts, in reply to some 
remark of the governor’s. “ I counted a hundred and 
three of their craft when they was off the Peak the other 
day, and not one on ’em all had less than four hands aboard 
it, while the biggest must have had fifty. All told, I do 
think, Mr. Mark, they might muster from twelve to fifteen 
hundred fio^hting' men.” 

“ That has been about my estimate of their force. Bob ; 
but, if they were fifteen thousand, we must bring them to 
action, for we fight for everything.” 

“ Aye, aye, sir,” answered Betts, ejecting the tobacco 
juice in the customary way, “ there’s reason in roasted 
eggs, they say, and there’s reason in firing a few broad- 
sides afore a body gives up. What a different place this 
here rock’s got to be, sir, from what it was when you and 
I was floating sea-weed and rafting loam to it, to make a 
melon or a cucumber bed ! Times is changed, sir, and 
we’re now at war. Then^ it was all peace and quiet ; and 
now it’s all hubbub and disturbance.” 

“We have got our, wives; here now, and that I think 
you’ll admit is something. Bob, when you remember the 
pains taken by yourself to bring so great a happiness 
about.” 

“ Why, yes, sir — I’ll allow the wives is something ” — 

“ Ship ahoy ! ” hailed a voice in good English, and in 
the most approved seaman-like tones of the voice. 

The hail came from the margin of the island nearest to 
the Reef, or that which was connected with the latter by 
means of the bridge, but not from a point very near the 
latter. 

“ In the name of heavenly marcy ! ” exclaimed Betts, 
“ what can that mean, governor ? ” 


278 


THE CRATER. 


“ I know that voice,” said Mark, hurriedly : “ and the j 

whole matter begins to clear up to me. Who hails the | 
Rancocus ? ” 

“Is that ship the Rancocus, then?” answered the >oice 
from the island. 

“ The Rancocus, and no other — are you not Bill Brown, 
her late carpenter ? ” 

“ The very same, God bless you, Mr. Woolston, for I 
now know your voice, too. Tm Bill, and right down glad 
am I to have things turn out so. I half suspected the truth 
when I saw a ship’s spars this arternoon in this place, 
though little did I think, yesterday, of ever seeing any- 
thing more of the old ’Cocus. Can you give me a cast 
across this bit of a ferry, sir ? ” 

“ Are you alone, Bill — or who have you for compan . 
ions ? ” - 

“There’s two on us, sir, only — Jim Wattles and I — 
seven on us was saved in the launch ; Mr. Hillson and the 
supercargo both dying afore we reached the land, as did 
the other man, we seven still living, though only two on • 
us is here.” 

“ Are there any black fellows with you ? — Any of the 
natives ? ” 

“ Not one, sir. We gave ’em the slip two hours ago, or 
as soon as we saw the ship’s masts, being bent on getting 
afloat in some craft or other, in preference to stopping 
with savages any longer. No, Mr. Woolston ; no fear of 
them to-night, for they are miles and miles to leeward, 
bothered in the channels, where they’ll be pretty sartain 
to pass the night ; though you’ll hear from ’em in the 
morning. Jim and T took to our land tacks, meeting with 
a good opportunity, and by running directly in the wdnd’s 
eye ; have come out here. We hid ourselves till the canoes 
was out of sight, and then we carried sail as hard as we 
could. So give us a cast and take us aboard the old ship 
again, Mr. Woolston, if you love a fellow-creatur’, and an 
old shipmate in distress.” 

Such was the singular dialogue which succeeded the un- 
expected hail. It completely put a new face on things at 


THE cratf:r. 


270 


the Reef. As Brown was a valuable man, and one whose 
word he had always relied on, Mark did not hesitate, but 
told him the direction to the bridge, where he and Betts 
met him and Wattles, after each of the parties had be- 
lieved the others to be dead now fully three years ! 

The two recovered seamen of the Rancocus were alone, 
having acted in perfect good faith with their former officer, 
who led them to the awning, gave them some refreshment, 
and heard their story. The account given by Jones, for 
the first time that very day, turned out to be essentially 
true. When the launch was swept away from the ship, it 
drove down to leeward, passing at no great distance from 
the crater, of which the men in her got a glimpse, without 
: being able to reach it. The attention of Hillson was mainly 
; given to keeping the ooat from filling or capsizing ; and 
‘ this furnished abundance of occupation. The launch got 
into one of the channels, and by observing the direction, 
i which was nearly east and west, it succeeded in passing 
! through all the dangers, coming out to leeward of the 
; shoals. As everybody believed that the ship was hope- 
I lessly lost, no effort was made to get back to the spot where 
j she had been left. No island appearing, Hillson deter- 
i mined to run off to the westward, trusting to fall in with 
land of some sort or other. The provisions and water were 
soon consumed, and then came the horrors usual to such 
scenes at sea. Hillson was one of the first that perished, 
his previous excesses unfitting him to endure privation. 
But seven survived when the launch reached an island in 
Waally’s part of the group, so often mentioned. There 
they fell into the hands of that turbulent and warlike chief. 
Waally made the seamen his slaves, treating them reasona- 
bly well, but exacting of them the closest attention to his 
interests. Brown, as a ship-carpenter, soon became a fa- 
vorite, and was employed in fashioning craft that it was 
thought might be useful in carrying out the ambitious proj- 
ects of his master. The men were kept on a small island, 
and were watched like any other treasure, having no op- 
portunity to communicate with any of those whites who 
appeared in other parts of the group. Thus, while Betts 


280 


THE CRATER. 


passed two months with Ooroony, and Heaton and his 
party nearly as much more time, these sailors, wlio heard 
of such visitors, could never get access to them. This was j 
partly owing to the hostilities between the two chiefs — 
Ooroony being then in the ascendant — and partly owing 
to the special projects of Waally, who, by keeping his pris- 
oners busily employed on his fleet, looked forward to the 
success which, in fact, crowned his efforts against his rival. 

At length Waally undertook the expedition which hai 
appeared in such force beneath the cliffs of the Peak. By 
this time. Brown had become so great a favorite, that he 
was permitted to accompany the chief; and Wattles was 
brought along as a companion for his shipmate. The re- 
maining flve were left behind, to complete a craft on which 
they had now been long employed, and which was intended 
to be the invincible war-canoe of those regions. Bro>vn 
and AYattles had been in Waally’s own canoe when the 
terrible echoes so much alarmed the uninstructed beings 
who heard it. They described them as much the most im- 
posing echoes they had ever heard ; nor did they, at lirst, 
know what to make of them, themselves. It was only on 
reflection, and after the retreat to Rancocus island, that 
Brown, by reasoning on the subject, came to the conclusion 
that the whites, who were supposed to be in possession of 
the place, had fired a gun, which had produced the astound- 
ing uproar that had rattled so far along the cliff. As all 
Brown’s sympathies were with the unknown people of his 
own color, he kept his conjectures to himself, and managed 
to lead Waally in a different direction, by certain conclu- 
sions of his own touching the situation of the reef where 
the Rancocus had been lost. 

Bill Brown was an intelligent man for his station and 
pursuits. He knew the courses steered by the launch, and 
had some tolerably accurate notions of the distances run. 
According to his calculations, the reef could not be very 
far to the northward of the Peak, and, by ascending the 
mountains on Rancocus Island, he either saw, or fancied i 
he saw the looming of land in that part of the ocean. It j 
then occurred to Brown that portions of the wreck might ^ 


THE CRATER. 


281 


still be found on the reef, and become the means of effect- 
ing his escape from the hands of his tyrants. Waally 
listened to his statements and conjectures with the utmost 
attention, and the whole fleet put to sea the very next day, 
in quest of this treasure. After paddling to windward 
again, until the Peak was fairly in sight. Brown steered to 
the northeast, a course that brought him out, after twenty- 
four hours of toil, under the lee of the group of the Reef. 
This discovery of itself, filled Waally with exultation and 
pride. Plere were no cliffs to scale, no mysterious mount- 
ain to appall, nor any visible obstacle to oppose his con- 
quests. It is true, that the newly-discovered territory did 
not appear to be of much value, little beside naked rock, 
or broad fields of mud and sea-weed intermingled, reward- 
ing their first researches. But better things were hoped 
for. It was something to men whose former domains were 
so much circumscribed and girded by the ocean, to find 
even a foundation for a new empire. Brown was now con- 
sulted as to every step to be taken, and his advice was im- 
plicitly followed. Columbus was scarcely a greater man, 
for the time being, at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, 
than Bill Brown immediately became at the court of 
Waally. His words were received as prophecies, his opin- 
ions as oracles. 

Honest Bill, who anticipated no more from his discov- 
eries than the acquisition of certain portions of wood, iron, 
and copper, with perhaps, the addition of a little rigging, 
certain sails and an anchor or two, acted, at first, for the 
best interests of his master. . He led the fleet along the 
margin of the group until a convenient harbor was found. 
Into this all the canoes entered, and a sandy beach supply- 
ing fresh water in abundance having been found, an en- 
campment was made for the night. Several hours of day- 
light remaining, however, when these great preliminary 
steps had been taken. Brown proposed to Waally an ex 
ploring expedition in a couple of the handiest of the canoes. 
The people thus employed were those who had given Ihe 
alarm to the governor. On that occasion, not only was the 
boat seen, but the ex^fiorers were near enough to the Reef, 


282 ' THE CRATER. 

to discover not only the crater, but the spars of the ship. 
Here, then, was a discovery scarcely less important than 
that of the group itself ! After reasoning on the facts, 
Waally came to the conclusion that these, after all, weie 
the territories that Heaton and his party had come to seek, 
and that here he should find those cows which he had once 
seen, and which he coveted more than any other riches on 
earth*. Ooroony had been we}>k enough to allow strangers 
in possession of things so valuable, to pass through his 
islands; but Ae, Waally, was not the man to imitate this ^ 
folly. Brown, too, began to think that the white meiijj 
sought were to be found here. That whites were in the ' 

o ; 

group was plain enough by the ship, and he supposed they 
might be fishing for the pearl-oyster, or gathering beche-de- 
mer for the Canton market. It was just possible that a 
colony had established itself in this unfrequented place, and ^ 
that the party of which he had heard so much, had come J 
hither with their stores and herds. Not the smallest sus-*! 
picion at first crossed his mind that he there beheld the | 
spars of the Rancocus ; but it was enough for him and j 
Wattles that Christian men were there, and that in all | 
probability they were men of the Anglo-Saxon race. No 1 
sooner was it ascertained that the explorers were in a false 1 
channel, and that it would not be in their power to pene- j 
trate farther in their canoes, than our two seamen deter- j 
mined to run, and attach themselves to the strangers. They I 
naturally thought that they should find a vessel armed and I 
manned, and ready to stand out to sea as soon as her offi- 
cers were apprised of the danger that threatened them, and ^ 
did not hesitate about joining their fortune with hers, in 
preference to remaining with Waally any longer. Free- I 
dom possesses a charm for which no other advantage can I 
compensate, and those two old sea-dogs, who had worked ^ 
like horses all their lives, in their original calling, preferred j 
returning to the ancient drudgery rather than live with 
Waally, -in the rude abundance of savage chiefs. The 
escape was easily enough made, as soon as it was dark, i 
Brown and Wattles being on shore most of the time, under 1 
the pretense that it was necessary in order that they might 


THE CRATER. 


283 


ascertain the character of these unknown colonists by signs 
understood best by themselves. 

Such is a brief outline of the explanations that the two 
recovered seamen made to their former officer. In return, 
the governor as briefly related to them the manner in 
which the ship had been saved, and the history of the 
colony down to that moment. When both tales had been 
told a consultation on the subject of future proceedings took 
place, quite as a matter of course. Brown and his com- 
panion, though delighted to meet their old ship-mates, were 
greatly disappointed in not finding a sea-going vessel ready 
to receive them. They did not scruple to say that had 
they known the actual state of things on the Reef, they 
would not have left the savages, but trusted to being of 
more service even to their natural friends, by_ continuing 
with Waally, in their former relation, than by taking the 
step they had. Repentance, or regrets, however, came too 
late ; and now they were fairly in for it, neither expressed 
any other determination than to stand by the service into 
which they had just entered, honestly, if not quite as gladly 
as they had anticipated. 

The governor and Betts both saw that Brown and Wat- 
tles entertained a high respect for the military prowess of 
the Indian chief. They pronounced him to be not only a 
bold, but an adroit warrior; one full of resources and in- 
genuity, when his means were taken into the account. 
The number of men with him, however. Brown assured 
Mark, was less than nine hundred, instead of exceeding a 
thousand, as had been supposed from the count made on 
the cliffs. As it now was explained, a great many women 
were in the canoes. Waally, moreover, was not altogether 
without fire-arms. He was master of a dozen old, imper- 
fect muskets, and what was more, he had a four-pound 
crun. Ammunition, however, was very scarce, and of shot 
for his gun he had but three. Each of these shot had 
been fired several times, in his wars with Ooroony, and 
days had been spent in hunting them up, after they had 
done their work, and of replacing them in the chief’s mag- 
azine. Brown could not say that they had done much 


284 


THE CRATER. 


mischief, having, in every instance, being fired at long dis- j 
tances, and with a very uncertain aim. The business of 
sighting guns was not very well understood by the great 
mass of Christians, half a century since ; and it is not at 
all surprising lhat savages should know little or nothing 
about it. Waally’s gunners, according to Brown’s account 
of the matter, could never be made to understand that the , 
bore of a gun was not exactly parallel to its exterior sur- 
face, and they invariably aimed too high, by sighting along 
the upper side of the piece. This same fault is very com- 
mon with the inexperienced in using a musket ; for, anx- * 
ious to get a sight of the end of their piece, they usually 
stick it up into the air and overshoot their object. It was , 
the opinion of Brown, on the whole, that little was to be i 
apprehended from Waally’s fire-arms. The spear and club 
were the weapons to be dreaded ; and with these the isl- 
anders were said to be very expert. But the disparity in 
numbers was the main ground of apprehension. ^ 

When Brown was told how near the schooner was to 
being launched, he earnestly begged the governor to let 
him and Bigelow go to work and put her into the water, i 
immediately. Everything necessary to a cruise was on i 
on board her, even to her provisions and water, the ar- 
rangements having been made to launch her with lier sails 
bent ; and, once in the water. Bill thought she would 
prove of the last importance to the defense. If the worst 
came to the worst, all hands could get on board her, and ' 
by standing through some of the channels that were clear 
of canoes, escape into the open water. Once there, 
Waally could do nothing with them, and they might be , 
governed by circumstances. 

Woolston viewed things a little differently. He loved 
the Reef ; it had become dear to him by association and 
history, and he did not relish the thought of abandon- ' 
ing it. There was too much property at risk, to say noth- 
ing of the ship, which would doubtless be burned for its 
metals, should the Indians get possession, even for a day. 
In that ship he had sailed ; in that ship he had been mar- 
ried ; in thaji ship his daughter had been born; and in 


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285 


that ship Bridget loved still to dwell, even more than she 
affected all the glories of the Eden of the Peak. That 
ship was not to be given np to savages without a struggle. 
Nor did Mark believe anything would be gained by de- 
priving the men of their rest during the accustomed hours. 
Early in the morning, with the light itself, he did intend 
to have Bigelow under the schooner’s bottom ; but he 
saw no occasion for his working in the dark. Launching 
was a delicate business, and some accident might happen 
in the obscurity. After talking the matter over, therefore, 
all hands retired to rest, leaving one woman at the crater, 
and one on board the ship, on the look-out ; women being 
preferred to men, on this occasion, in order that the latter 
might reserve their strength for the coming struggle. 

At the appointed hour next morning, every one on the 
Reef was astir at the first peep of day. No disturbance 
had occurred in the night, and, what is perhaps a little re- 
markable, the female sentinels had not given any false 
alarm. As soon as a look from the Summit gave the gov- 
ernor reason to believe that Waally was not very near 
him, he ordered preparations to be made for the launch 
of the Friend Abraham White. A couple of hours’ work 
was -still required to complete this desirable task ; and 
everybody set about his or her assigned duty with activity 
and zeal. Some of the women prepared the breakfast ; 
others carried ammunition to the different guns, while 
Betts went round and loaded them, one and all ; and 
others, again, picked up such articles of value as had been 
overlooked in the haste of the previous evening, carrying 
them either into the crater, or on board the ship. 

On examining his fortifications by daylight, the governor 
resolved to set up something more secure in the way of a 
gate for the crater. He also called off two or three of the 
men to get 'Out the boarding-netting of the ship, which 
was well provided in that respect ; a good provision hav- 
ing been made, by way of keeping the Fejee people at 
arms’ length. These two extraordinary offices delayed the 
work on the ways ; and when the whole colony went to 
breakfast, which they did about an hour after sunrise, the 


286 


THE CRATER. 


schooner was not yet in the water, though quite ready to 
be put there. Mark announced that there was no occasion 
to be in a hurry, no canoes were in sight, and there was 
time to have everything done deliberately and in order. 

This security came very near proving fatal to the whole 
party. Most of the men breakfasted under the awning, 
which was near their work ; while the women took that 
meal in their respective quarters. Some of the last were 
in the crater, and some in the ship. It will be remem- 
bered that the awning was erected near the spring, and 
that the spring was but a short distance from the bridge. 
This bridge, it will also be recollected, connected the Reef 
with an island that stretched away for miles, and which 
had forme*d the original range for the swine, after the 
changes that succeeded the eruption. It was composed of 
merely two long ship’s planks, the passage being only some 
fifty or sixty feet in width. 

The governor, now, seldom ate with his people. He 
knew enough of human nature to understand that author- 
ity was best preserved by avoiding familiarity. Besides, 
there is, in truth, no association more unpleasant to those 
whose manners have been cultivated, than that of the 
table, with the rude and unrefined. Bridget, for instance, 
could hardly be expected to eat with the wives of the sea- 
men ; and Mark naturally wished to eat with his own fam- 
ily. On that occasion he had taken his meal in the cabin 
of the Rancocus, as usual, and had come down to the 
awning to see that the hands turned-to as soon as they 
were through their own breakfasts. Just as he was about 
to issue the necessary order, the air was filled with fright- 
ful yells, and a stream of savages poured out of an open- 
ing in the rocks, on to the plain of the “ hog pasture,” as 
the adjoining field was called, rushing forward in a body 
towards the crater. They had crept along under the rocks 
by following a channel, and now broke cover within two 
hundred yards of the point they intended to assail. 

The governor behaved admirably on this trying occa- 
sion. He issued his orders clearly, calmly, and promptly 
Calling on Bigelow and Jones by name, he ordered them 


THE CRATER. 


287 


to withdraw the bridge, which could easily be done by 
hauling over the planks by means of wheels that had long 
been fitted for that purpose. The bridge withdrawn, the 
channel, or harbor, answered all the purposes of a ditch ; 
though the South Sea islanders would think but little of 
swimming across it. Of course, Waally’s men knew noth- 
ing of this bridge, nor did they know of the existence of 
the basin between them and their prey. They rushed di- 
rectly towards the ship-yard, and loud were their yells of 
disappointment when they found a broad reach of water 
still separating them from the whites. Naturally they 
looked for the point of connection ; but, by this time, the 
planks were wheeled in, and the communication was sev- 
ered. At this instant, Waally had all his muskets dis- 
charged, and the gun fired from the catamaran, on which 
it was mounted. No one was injured by this volley, but a 
famous noise was made ; and noise passed for a good deal 
in the warfare of that day and region. 

It was now the turn of the colonists. At the first alarm 
everybody rushed to arms, and every post was manned, or 
womaned, in a minute. On the poop of the ship was 
planted one of the cannon, loaded with grape, and pointed 
so as to sweep the strait of the bridge. It is true, the 
distance was fully a mile, but Betts had elevated the 
gun with a view to its sending its missiles as far as was 
necessary. The other carronades on the Summit were 
pointed so as to sweep the portion of the hog pasture 
that was nearest, and which was now swarming with ene- 
mies. Waally, himself, was in front, and was evidently 
selecting a party that was to swim for the sandy beach, a 
sort of forlorn hope. No time was to be lost. Juno, a 
perfect heroine in her way, stood by the gun on the poop, 
while Dido was at those on the Summit, each brandishing, 
or blowing, a lighted match. The governor made the pre- 
concerted signal to the last, and she applied the match. 
Away went the grape, rattling along the surface of the 
opposite rocks, and damaging at least a dozen of Waally’s 
men. Thi^e were killed outright, and the wounds of the 
rest were very serious. A yell followed, and a young 


288 


THE CRATER. 


chief rushed towards the strait, with frantic cries, as if 
bent on leaping across the chasm. He was followed by 
a hundred wamors. Mark now made the signal to Juno. 
Not a moment was lost by the undaunted girl who touched 
off her gun in the very nick of time. . Down came the 
grape, hissing along the Reef ; and, rebounding from its 
surface, away it leaped across the strait, flying through the 
thickest of the assailants. A dozen more suffered by that 
discharge. Waally now saw that a crisis was reached, 
and his efforts to recover the ground lost were worthy of 
his reputation. Calling to the swimmers, he succeeded in , 
getting them down into the water in scores. 

- Tlie governor had ordered those near him to their sta- 
tions. This took Jones and Bigelow on board the Abra- 
ham, where two carronades were pointed through the stern 
ports, forming a battery to rake the hog pasture, which it 
was foreseen must be the field of battle if the enemy came 
by land, as it was the only island that came near enough ^ 
to the Reef to be used in that way. As for Mark him- 
self, accompanied by Brown and Wattles, all well armed, 
he held his party in reserve, as a corps to be moved wher- 
ever it might be most needed. At that all-important mo- 
ment a happy idea occurred to the young governor. The 
schooner was all ready for launching. The reserve were 
under her bottom, intending to make a stand behind the 
covers of the yard, when Mark found himself at one of 
the spur-shores, just as Brown, armed to the teeth, came s 
up to the other. 

“ Lay aside your arras,” cried the governor, “ and knock 
away your spur-shore. Bill ! Down with it, while I knock 
this away ! Look out on deck, for we are about to launch 1 
you ! ” 

These words were just uttered, when the schooner began 
to move. All the colonists now cheered, and away the 
Abraham went, plunging like a battering-ram into the 
midst of the swimmers. While dipping deepest, Bigelow 
and Jones fired both their carronades, the shot of which , 
threw^ the whole basin into foam. This combination of 
the means of assault was too much for savages to resist 


THE CRATER. 


289 


Waally was instantly routed. His main body retreated 
into the coves of the channel, where their canoes lay, while 
the swimmers and stragglers got out of harm’s way, in the 
best manner they could. 

Not a moment was to be lost. The Abraham was 
brought up by a hawser, as is usual, and was immediately 
boarrled by Mark, Bigelow, and Wattles. This gave her a 
crew of five men, who were every way equal to handling 
her. Betts was left in command of the Reef, witli the 
remainder of the forces. To make sail required but two 
minutes, and Mark was soon under way, rounding Loam 
Island, or what had once been Loam Island, for it was now 
connected with the hog pasture, in order to get into the 
reach where Waally had his forces. This reach was a 
quarter of a mile wide, and gave room for manoeuvring. 
Althousfh the schooner bore down to the assault with a 
very determined air, it was by no means Mark’s cue to 
come to close quarters. Being well to windward, with 
plenty of room, he kept the Abraham tacking, yawing, 
waritjg, and executing other of the devices of nautical 
delay, whilst his men loaded and fired her guns as fast 
as they could. There were more noise and smoke, than 
there was bloodshed, as commonly happens on such oc- 
cassions ; but these sufficed to secure the victory. The 
savages were soon in a real panic, and no authority of 
Waally’s could check their flight. Away they paddled 
to leeward, straining every nerve to get away from pur- 
suers, whona they supposed to be murderously bent on 
killing them to a man. A more unequivocal flight never 
occurred in war. 

Although the governor was much in earnest, he was 
not half as bloodthirsty as his fleeing enemies imagined. 
Every dictate of prudence told him not to close with the 
lanoes until he had plenty of sea-room. The course they 
were steering would take them all out of the group, into 
the open water, in the course of three or four hours, and 
he determined to follow at a convenient distance, just 
hastening the flight by occasional hints from his guns. In 
this manner, the people of the Abraham had much the 
19 


290 


THE CRATER. 


easiest time of it, for they did little besides sail, while the 
savages had to use all their paddles to keep out of the 
schooner’s way ; they sailed, also, but their speed under tlieir 
cocoanut canvas was not sufficient to keep clear of the 
Friend Abraham White, which proved to be a very fast 
vessel, as well as one easily handled. 

At length, Waally found his fleet in the open ocean, 
where he trusted the chase would end. But he had 
greatly mistaken the course of events, in applying that 
“ flattering unction.” It was now that the governor com- 
menced the chase in good earnest, actually running down 
three of the canoes, and making prisoners of one of the 
crews. In this canoe was a young warrior, whom Bill 
Brown and Wattles at -once recognized as a favorite son 
of the chief. Here was a most important conquest, and 
Mark turned it to account. He selected a proper agent 
from among the captives, and sent him with a palm-branch 
to Waally himself, with proposals for an exchange. There 
was no difficulty in communicating, since Brown and 
Wattles both spoke the language of the natives with great 
fluency. Three years of captivity had, at least, taught 
them that much. 

A good deal of time was wasted before Waally could be 
brought to confide in the honor of his enemies. At last, 
love for his offspring brought him,' unarmed, alongside of 
the schooner, and the governor met this formidable chief 
face to face. He found the latter a wily and intelligent, 
savage. Nevertheless, he had not the art to conceal his 
strong affection foi^ his son, and on that passion did Mark 
Woolston play. Waally offered canoes, robes of feathers, 
whales’ teeth, and everything that was most esteemed 
among his own people, as a ransom for the boy. But this 
was not the exchange the governor desired to make. He 
offered to restore the son to the arms of his father as soon 
as the five seamen who were still prisoners on his citadel 
island should be brought alongside of the schooner. If 
these terms were rejected, the lad must take the fate of 
war. 

Great was the struggle in the bosom of Waally, between 


THE CRATER. 


291 


natural affection, and the desire to retain his captives. 
After two hours of subterfuges, artifices, and tricks, the 
former prevailed, and a treaty was made. Agreeably to 
its conditions, the schooner was to pilot the fieet of canoes 
to Betto’s grDup, which could easily be done, as Mark 
knew not onl}' its bearings, but its latitude and longitude. 
As soon as this was effected, Waally engaged to send a 
messenger for the seamen, and to remain himself on board 
the Abraham until the exchange was completed. The 
chief wished to attach terms, by which the colonists were 
to aid him in more effectually putting down Ooroony, who 
was checked rather than conquered, but Mark refused to 
listen to any such proposition. He was more disposed to 
aid, than to overcome the kind-hearted Ooroony, and made 
up his mind to have an interview with him before he re- 
turned from the intended voyage. 

Some delay would have occurred, to enable Mark to let 
Bridget know of his intended absence, had it not been for 
the solicitude of Betts. Finding the sails of the schooner 
had gone out of sight to leeward. Bob manned the Nesha- 
mony, and followed as a support. In the event of a 
wreck, for instance, his presence might have been of the 
last importance. He got alongside of the Abraham just 
as the treaty was concluded, and was in time to carry back 
the news to the crater, where he might expect still to 
arrive that evening. With this arrangement, therefore, 
the parties separated, Betts beating back, through the 
channels of the Reef, and the governor leading off to the 
northward and westward, under short canvas ; all of 
Waally’s canoes, catamarans, etc., following about a mile 
astern of him. 


292 


THE CEATEB. 


CHAPTER XIX. 

Nay, shrink not from the word “ farewell ! ” 

As if ’t were friendship’s final knell; 

Such fears may prove but vain : 

So changeful is life’s fleeting day, 

Whene’er we sever — hope may say. 

We part — to meet again. 

. Bernard Barton. 


The Abraham went under short canvas, and she was 
just tlirie days, running dead before the wind, ere she 
came in sight of Waally’s islands. Heaving-to to windward 
of the group, the canoes all passed into their respective 
harbors, leaving the schooner in the offing, with the hos- 
tages on board, waiting for the fulfillment of the treaty. 
The next day, Waally himself re-appeared, bringing with 
him Dickinson, Harris, Johnson, Edwards, and Bright, the 
five seamen of the Rancocus that had so long been cap- 
tives in his hands. It went hard with that savage chief to 
relinquish these men, but he loved his son even more than 
he loved power. As for the men themselves, language 
cannot portray their delight. They were not only rejoiced' 
to 'be released, but their satisfaction was heightened on find- 
ing into whose hands they had fallen. These men had all 
kept themselves free from wives, and returned to their! 
colo7', that word being now more appropriate than colors^ | 
or ensign, unshackled by any embarrassing engagements. 
They at once made the Abraham a power in that part ofj! 
the world. With twelve able seamen, all strong, athletic,^ 
and healthy men, to handle his craft, and with his two 
carronades and a long six, the governor felt as if he might! 
interfere with the political relations of the adjoining states! 
with every prospect of being heard. Waally was, prob-' 
ably, of the same opinion, for he made a great effort to 
extend the treaty so far as to overturn Ooroony altogether, 


THE CRATER. 


293 


ana thus secure to their two selves the control of .ill that 
region. Woolston inquired of Waally, in what he should 
be benefited by such a policy ? when the wily savage told 
him, with the gravest face imaginable, that he, Mark, 
might retain, in addition to his territories at the Reef, 
Rancocus Island ! The governor thanked his fellow po- 
; tentate for this hint, and now took occasion to assure him 
that, in future, each and all of Waally’s canoes must keep 
I away from Rancocus Island altogether ; that island be- 
longed to him, and if any more expeditions visited it, the 
call should be returned at Waally’s habitations. This an- 
swer brought on an angry discussion, in which Waally, 
once or twice, forgot himself a little ; and when he took 
his leave, it was not in ihe best humor possible. 

Mark now deliberated on the state of things around him. 
Jones knew Ooroony well, having been living in his terri- 
tories until they were overrun by his powerful enemy, and 
the governor sent him to find that chief, using a captured 
canoe, of which they had kept two or three alongside of 
the schooner for the purpose. Jones, who was a sworn 
friend of the unfortunate chief, went as negotiator. Care 
was taken to land at the right place, under cover of the 
Abraham’s guns, and in six hours Mark had the real grati- 
fication of taking Ooroony, good, honest, upright Ooroony, 
by the hand, on the quarter-deck of his own vessel. Much 
as the chief had suffered and lost, within the last two 
years, a gleam of returning happiness shone on him when 
he placed his foot on the deck of the schooner. His re- 
ception by the governor was honorable and even touch- 
ing. Mark thanked him for his kindness to his wife, to 
his sister, to Heaton, and to his friend Bob. In point of 
fact, without this kindness, he, AYoolston, might then have 
been a solitary hermit, without the means of getting ac- 
cess to any of his fellow-creatures, and doomed to remain 
in that condition all his days. The obligation was now 
frankly admitted, and Ooroony shed tears of joy when he 
thus found that his good deeds were remembered and ap- 
preciated. 

It has long been a question with moralists, whether or 


294 


THE CRATER. 


not good and evil bring their rewards and punishments in 
this state of being. While it might be dangerous to infer 
the affirmative of this mooted point, as it would be cutting 
off the future and its consequences from those whose real 
hopes and fears ought to be mainly concentrated in the life 
that is to come, it \\ ould seem to be presuming to suppose 
that principles like these ever can be nugatory in the con- 
trol even of our daily concerns. 

If it be true that God “ visits the sins of the fathers upon 
the children even to the third and fourth generations of 
them that hate him,” and that the seed of the righteous 
man is never seen begging his bread, there is much reason 
to believe that a portion of our transgressions is to meet 
with its punishment here on earth. ‘We think nothing can 
be more apparent than the fact that, in the light of mere 
worldly expediency, an upright and high-principled course 
leads to more happiness than one that is the reverse ; and 
if “ honesty is the best policy,” after all the shifts and ex- 
pedients of cupidity, so does virtue lead most unerringly 
to happiness here, as it opens up the way to happiness 
hereafter. 

All the men of iffie Abraham had heard of Ooroony, and 
of his benevolent qualities. It was his goodness, indeed, 
that had been the cause of his downfall ; for had he pun- 
ished Waally as he deserved to be, when the power was in 
his hands, that turbulent chief, who commenced life as his 
lawful tributary, would never have gained a point where 
he was so near becoming his master. Every man on board 
now pressed around the good old chief, who heard on all 
sides of him assurances of respect and attachment, with 
pledges of assistance. When this touching scene was over, 
Mark held a council on the quarter-deck, in which the 
whole matter of the political condition of the group was 
discussed, and the wants and dangers of Ooroony laid 
bare. 

As commonly happens everywhere, civilized nations and 
popular governments forming no exceptions to the rule, 
the ascendency of evil in this cluster of remote and savage 
islands was owing altogether to the activity and audacity 


THE CRATER. 


295 


of a few wicked men, rather than to the inclination of the 
mass. The people greatly preferred .the mild sway of their 
lawful chief, to the violence and exactions of the turbulent 
warrior who had worked his way into the ascendant ; and, 
if a portion of the population had, unwittingly, aided the 
latter in his designs, under the momentary impulses of a 
love of change, they now fully repented of their mistake, 
and would gladly see the old condition of things restored. 
There was one island, in particular, which might be con- 
sidered as the seat of power in the entire group. Ooroony 
had been born on it, and it had long been the residence 
of his family ; but Waally succeeded in driving him off of 
it, and of intimidating its people, who, in secret, pined for 
the return of their ancient rulers. If this island could be 
again put in his possession, it would, itself, give the good 
chief such an accession of power, as would place him, at 
once, on a level with his competitor, and bring the war 
back to a struggle on equal terms. Could this be done 
with the assistance of the schooner, the moral effect of 
such an alliance would, in all probability, secure Ooroony ’s 
ascendency as long as such an alliance lasted. 

It would not have been easy to give a^clearer illustration 
of the truth that “ knowledge is power,” than the case now 
before us affords. Here was a small vessel, of less than a 
hundred tons in measurement, with a crew of twelve men, 
and armed with three guns, that was not only deemed to 
be sufficient, but which was in fact amply sufficient to 
change a dynasty among a people who counted their hosts 
in thousands. The expedients of civilized life gave the 
governor this ascendency, and he determined to use it 
justly, and in moderation. It was his wish to avoid blood- 
shed ; and after learning all the facts he could, he set about 
his task coolly and with prudence. 

The first thing done, was to carry the schooner in, within 
reach of shot of Waally’s principal fortress, where his 
ruling chiefs resided, and which in fact was the hold where 
about a hundred of his followers dwelt : fellows that kept 
the whole island in fear, and who rendered it subservient 
tc Waally’s wishes. This fortress, fort, or whatever it 


296 


THL CRATER. 


should be called, was then summoned, its chief being com- 
manded to quit, not only the hold, but the island altogether. 
The answer was a defiance. As time was given for the 
reception of this reply, measures had been taken to support 
the summons by a suitable degree of concert and activity. 
Ooroony lauded in person, and got among his friends on 
the island, who, assured of the support of the schooner, 
took up arms to a man, and appeared in a force that, of 
itself, was sufficient to drive Waally’s men into the sea. 
Nevertheless, the last made a show of resistance until the 
governor fired his six-pounder at them. The shot passed 
through the wooden pickets, and, though it hurt no one, 
it made such a clatter, that the chief in command sent out 
a palm-branch, and submitted. This bloodless conquest 
caused a revolution at once, in several of the less important 
islands, and in eight-and-forty hours, Ooroony found him- 
self where he had been when Betts appeared in the Neslia- 
mony. Waally was fain to make the best of matters, and 
even he came in, acknowledged his crimes, obtained a 
pardon, and paid tribute. The effect of this submission 
on the part of Waally, was to establish Ooroony more 
strongly than ever, in autiiority, and to give him a chance 
of reigning peacefully for the remainder of his days. All 
this was done in less than a week after the war had begun 
in earnest, by the invasion of the Reef ! 

The governor was too desirous to relieve the anxiety of 
those he had left behind him to accept the invitations that 
he and his party now received to make merry. He traded 
a little with Ooroony’s people, obtaining many things that 
were useful in exchange for old iron, and other articles of 
little or no value. What was more, he ascertained that 
sandal-wood was to be found on Rancocus Island in small 
quantities, and in this group in abundance. A contract 
was made, accordingly, for the cutting and preparing of a 
considerable quantity of this wood, which was to be ready 
for delivery in the course of three months, when it was 
understood that the schooner was to return and take it in. 
These arrangements completed, the Friend Abraham White 
sailed for home. 


.THE CRATER. 


297 . 


Instead of entangling himself in the channels to leeward, 
Mark made the land well to the northward, entering the 
group by a passage that led him quite down to the Reef, 
as the original island was now uniformly called, with a 
flowing sheet. Of course the schooner was seen an hour 
before she arrived, and everybody was out on the Reef to 
greet the adventurers. Fears mingled with the other man- 
ifestations of joy, when the result of this great enterprise 
came to be known. Mark had a delicious moment when 
he folded the sobbing Bridget to his heart, and Friend 
Martha was overcome in a way that it was not usual for 
her to betray feminine weakness. 

Everybody exulted in the success of the colony, and it 
was hoped that the future would be as quiet as it was se- 
cure. 

But recent events began to give the governor trouble,-on 
other accounts. The accession to his numbers, as well as 
the fact that these men were seamen, and had belonged to 
the Rancocus, set him thinking on the subject of his duty 
to the owners of that vessel. So long as he supposed him- 
self to be a cast-away, he had made use of their property 
without compunction, but circumstances were now changed, 
and he felt it to be a duty seriously to reflect on the possi- 
bility of doing something for the benefit of those who had, 
undesignedly it is true, contributed so much to his own 
comfort. In order to give this important subject a due 
consideration, as well as to relieve the minds of those at 
the Peak, the Abraham sailed for the cove the morning 
after her arrival at the Reef. Bridget went across to pay 
Anne a visit, and most of the men were of the party. The 
Neshamony had carried over the intelligence of M' aally’s 
repulse, and of the Abraham’s having gone to that chiefs 
island, but the result of this last expedition remained to hd 
communicated. 

The run was made in six hours, and the Abraham was 
taken into the cove, and anchored there, just as easily as 
one of the smaller craft. There was water enough for 
anything that floated, the principal want being that of 
room, though there was enough even of room to receive a 


298 


THL CRATER. 


dozen vessels of size. The place, indeed, was a snug, 
natural basin, rather than a port, but art could not have 
made it safer, or even much more commodious. It was 
all so small an island could ever require in the way of a 
haven, it not being probable that the trade of the place 
would reach an amount that the shipping it could hold 
would not carry. 

The governor now summoned a general council of the 
colony. The seven seamen attended, as well as all the 
others, one or two at the crater excepted, and the business 
in hand was entered on soberly, and, in some respects, 
solemnly. In the first place, the constitution and intentions 
of the colonists were laid before the seven men, and they 
were asked as to their wishes for the future. Four of these 
men, including Brown, at once signed the constitution, 
and were sworn in as citizens. It was their wish to pass 
their days in that delicious climate, and amid the abun- 
dance of those rich and pleasing islands. The other three 
engaged with Mark for a time, but expressed a desire to 
return to America after a while. Wives were wanting ; 
and this the governor saw, plainly enough, was a difficulty 
that must be got over, to keep the settlement contented. 
Not that a wife may not make a man’s home very misera- 
ble, as well as very happy ; but most people prefer trying 
the experiment for themselves, instead of profiting by the 
experience of others. 

As soon as the question of citizenship was decided, and- 
' all the engagements were duly made, the governor laid his 
question of conscience before the general council. For a 
long time it had been supposed that the Baucocus could 
not be moved. The eruption had left her in a basin, or 
hole, where there was just water enough to float her, while 
twelve feet was the most that could be found on the side 
on which the channel was deepest. Now, thirteen feet aft 
was the draught of the ship when she was launched. This 
Bob well knew, having been launched in her. But Brown 
had suggested the possibility of lifting the vessel eighteen 
inches, or two feet, and of thus carrying her over the rock 
by which she was imprisoned. Once liberated from that 


. THE RATER. 


299 


place, every one knew there would be no difRculty in get- 
ting the ship to sea, since in one of the channels, that 
which led to the northward, a vessel might actually carry 
out fully five fathoms, or quite thirty feet. This channel 
had been accurately sounded by the governor himself, and 
of the fact he was well assured. Indeed, he had sounded 
most of the true channels around the Reef. By true chan- 
nels is meant those passages that led from the open water 
quite up to the crater, or which admitted the passage of 
vessels or boats ; while the false were cuts de sac, through 
which there were no real passages. 

The possibility, thus admitted, of taking the Rancocus 
to sea, a grave question of conscience arose. The property 
belonged to certain owners in Philadelphia, and was it not 
a duty to take it there? It is true, Friend Abraham White 
and his partners had received batik their money from the 
insurers — this fact Bridget remembered to have heard be- 
fore she left home ; but those insurers, then, had their 
claims. Now the' vessel was still sound and seaworthy. 
Her upper works might require calking, and her rigging 
could not be of the soundest ; but, on the whole, the Ran- 
cocus was still a very valuable ship, and a voyage might 
be made for her yet. The governor thought that could 
she get her lower hold filled with sandal-wood, and that 
wood be converted into teas at Canton, as much would be 
made as would render every one contented with the result 
of the close of the voyage, disastrous as had been its com- 
mencement. Then Bridget would be of age shortly, when 
she would become entitled to an amount of property that, 
properly invested, would contribute largely to the wealth 
and power of the colony, as well as to those of its gov- 
ernor. 

In musing on all these plans, Mark had not the least 
idea of abandoning the scheme for colonizing. That was 
dearer to him now than ever ; nevertheless, he saw obsta- 
cles to their execution. No one could navigate the ship 
but himself ; in truth, he was the only proper person to 
carry her home, and to deliver her to her owners, whom- 
soever those might now be, and he could not conceal from 


300 


THE CRATER. 


himself the propriety, as we’l as the necessity, of his going 
in her himself. On the other hand, what might not be the 
consequences to the colony, of his absence for twelve 
months ? A less time than that would not suffice to do all 
that was required to be done. Could he take Bridget with 
him, or could he bear to leave her behind ? Her presence 
might be necessary for the disposal of the real estate of 
which she was the mistress, while her quitting the colony 
might be the signal for breaking it up altogether, under 
the impression that the two persons most interested in it 
would never return. 

Thus did the management of this whole matter become 
exceedingly delicate. Heaton and Betts, and in the end all 
the rest, were of opinion that the Rancocus ought to be 
sent back to America, for the benefit of those to whom she 
now legally belonged. Could she get a cargo, or any con- 
siderable amount of sandal-wood, and exchange it for teas 
in Canton, the proceeds of these teas might make a very 
sufficient return for all the outlays of the voyage, as well 
as for that portion of the property which had been used by 
the colonists. The use of this property was a very different , 
thing, now, from what it was when Mark and Betts had 
every reason to consider themselves as merely shipwrecked 
seamen. Then, it was not only a matter of necessity, but, 
through that necessity, one of right ; but now the most 
that could be said about it was, that it might be very con- 
venient. The principles of the colonists were yet too good 
to allow of their deceiving themselves on this subject. They 
had, most of them, engaged with the owners to take care of 
this property, and it might be questioned, if such a wreck 
had ever occurred as to discharge the crew. The rule in 
such cases we believe to be, that, as seamen have a lien on 
the vessel for their wages, when that lien ceases to be of 
value, their obligations to the ship terminate.* If the Ran- 
cocus could be carried to America, no one belonging to her 
was yet legally exonerated from his duties. 

After weighing all these points, it was gravely and 
solemnly declared that an effort should first be made to get 
the ship ouf of her present duress, and that the question 


THE CRATER. 


301 


of future proceedings should then be settled in another 
council. In the mean time, further and more valuable pres- 
ents were to be sent to both Ooroony and Waally, from 
the stores of beads, knives, axes, etc., that were in the ship, 
with injunctions to them to get as much sandal-wood as was 
possible cut, and to have it brought down to the coast. 
Betts was to carry the presents, in the Neshamony, ac- 
companied by Jones, who spoke the language, when he was 
to return and aid in the work upon the vessel. 

The duty enjoined in these decisions was commenced 
without delay. Heaton and Unus were left at the Peak, as 
usual, to look after things in that quarter, and to keep the 
mill from being idle, while all the rest of the men returned 
to the Reef and set about the work on the ship. The first 
step taken was to send down all the spars and rigging that 
remained aloft ; after which everything was got up out of 
the hold, and rolled, or dragged ashore. Of cargo, strictly 
speaking, the Rancocus had very little in weight, but she 
had a great many water-casks, four or five times as many as 
would have been put into her in an ordinary voyage. These 
casks had all been filled with fresh water, to answer the 
double purpose of a supply for the people, and as ballast 
for the ship. When these casks were all got on deck, and 
the water was started, it was found that the vessel floated 
several inches lighter than before. The sending ashore of 
the spars, sails, rigging, lumber, provisions, etc., produced a 
still further effect, and, after carefully comparing the sound- 
ings, and the present draught of the vessel, the governor 
found it would be necessary to lift the last only eight 
inches, to get her out of her natural dock. This result 
greatly encouraged the laborers, who proceeded with re- 
newed spirit. As it would be altogether useless to over- 
haul the rigging, calk decks, etc., unless the ship could be 
got out of her berth, everybody worked with thaj>«tid in 
view at first. In the course of a week, the water-casks 
were under her bottom, and it was thought that the vessel 
would have about an inch to spare. A gale having blown 
in the water, and a high tide coming at the same time, the 
governor determined to try the experiment of crossing the 


302 THE CRATER. 

barrier. The order came upon the men suddenly, for no 
one thought the attempt would be made, until the ship was 
lifted an inch or two higher. But Mark saw what the wind 
had been doing for them, and he lost not a moment. The 
vessel was moved, brought head to her course, and the 
lines were hauled upon. Away went the Rancocus, which 
was now moved for the first time since the eruption ! 

Just as the governor fancied that the ship was going 
clear, she struck aft. On examination it was found that 
her heel was on a knoll of the rock, and that had she been 
a fathom on either side of it, she would have gone clear. 
The hold, however, was very slight, and by getting two of 
the anchors to the cat-heads, the vessel was canted sufiS- 
ciently to admit of her passing. Then came cheers for 
success and the cry of “ walk away with her ! ” That 
same day the Rancocus was hauled alongside of the Reef, 
made fast, and secured just as she would have been at her 
own wharf, in Philadelphia. 

Now the calkers began their part of the job. When 
calked and scraped, she was painted, her rigging was over- 
hauled and got into its places, the masts and yards were 
sent aloft, and all the sails were overhauled. A tier of 
casks, filled with fresh water, was put into her lower hold 
for ballast, and all the stores necessary for the voyage were 
sent on board her. Among over things overhauled were the 
provisions. Most of the beef and pork was condemned, 
and no small part of the bread ; still, enough remained to 
take the ship’s company to a civilized port. So reluctant 
was the governor to come to the decision concerning the 
crew, that he even bent sails before a council was again 
convened. But there was no longer any good excuse for 
delay. Betts had long been back, and brought the report 
that the sandal-wood was being hauled to the coast in great 
quantities, both factions working with right good will. In 
another month the ship might be loaded and sail for 
America. 

To the astonishment of every one, Bridget appeared in 
the council, and announced her determination to remain 
behind, while her husband carried the ship to her owners. 


THE CRATER. 


She saw and felt the nature of his duty^ and could consent 
to his performing it to the letter. Mark was quite taken 
by surprise by this heroic and conscientious act in his young 
wife, and^he had a great struggle with himself on the 
subject of leaving her behind him. Heaton, however, was 
so very prudent, and the present relations with their neigh- 
bors — neighbors four hundred miles distant — were so 
amicable, the whole matter was so serious, and the duty so 
obvious, that he finally acquiesced, without suffering his 
doubts to be seen. 

The next thing was to select a crew. The three men 
who liad declined becoming citizens of the colony, John- 
son, P^dwards, and Bright, all able seamen, went as a matter 
j of course. Betts would have to go in the character of 
: mate, though Bigelow might have got along in that capac- 
I ity. Betts knew nothing of navigation, while Bigelow 
might find his way into port on a pinch. On the other 
hand, Betts was a prime seaman — a perfect long-cue, in 
fact — whereas the most that could be said of Bigelow, in 
this respect, was that he was a stout, willing fellow, and 
was much better than a raw hand. The governor named 
Betts as his first, and Bigelow as his second officer. Brown 
remained behind, having charge of the navy in the gov- 
ernor’s absence. He had a private interview'' with Mark, 
however, in which he earnestly requested that the gov- 
ernor would have the goodness “ to pick out for him the 
sort of gal that he thought would make a fellow a good 
and virtuous wife, and bring her out with him, in what- 
ever way he might return.” Mark made as fair promises 
as the circumstances of the case would allow, and Brown 
was satisfied. 

It was thought prudent to have eight white men on board 
the ship, Mark intending to borrow as many more of 
Ooroony’s people, to help pull and haul. K, With such a 
crew, he thought he might get along very well. Wattles 
chose to remain with his friend Brown ; but Dickinson and 
Harris, though ready and willing to return, wished to sail 
in the ship. Like Brown, they wanted wives, but chose to 
s select them for themselves. On this subject Wattles said 


304 


THE CRATER. 


nothing. We may add here, that Unus^nd Juno were 
united before the ship sailed. They took up land on the j 
Peak, where Unus erected for himself a very neat cabin. 
Bridget set the young couple up, giving the furniture, a | 
pig, some fowls, and other necessaries. i 

At length the day for sailing arrived. Previously to de- ! 
parting, Mark had carried the ship through the channel, | 
and she was anchored in a very good and safe roadstead, 
outside of everything. The leave-taking took place on 
board her. Bridget wept long in her husband’s arms, but 
finally got so far the command of herself, as to assume an 
air of encouraging firmness among the other women. By 
this time, it was every way so obvious Mark’s presence 
would be indispensable in America, that his absence was 
regarded as a necessity beyond control. Still it was hard 
to part for a year, nor was the last embrace entirely free 
from anguish. Friend Martha Betts took leave of Friend 
Robert with a great appearance of calmness, though she 
felt the separation keenly. A quiet, warm-hearted woman, 
she had made her husband very happy ; and Bob was 
quite sensible of her worth. But to him the sea was a 
home, and he regarded a voyage round the world much as 
a countryman would look upon a trip to market. He saw 
his wife always in the vista created by his imagination, but 
she was at the end of the voyage. 

At the appointed hour, the Rancocus sailed, Brown and 
Wattles going down with her in the Neshamony as far as 
Betto’s group, in order to bring back the latest intelligence 
of her proceedings. The governor now got Ooroony to 
assemble his priests and chiefs, and to pronounce a taboo 
on all intercourse with the whites for one year. At the 
end of that time, he promised to return, and to bring with 
him presents that should render every one glad to welcome 
him back. Even Waally was included in these arrange- 
ments ; and when Mark finally sailed, it was with a strong 
hope that in virtue of the taboo, of Ooroony’s power, and 
of his rival’s sagacity, he might rely on the colony’s meet- 
ing with no molestation during his absence. The reader 
will see that the Peak and Reef would be in a very de- , 


THE CRATER. 


305 


feiiseless condition, were it not for the schooner. By 
means of that vessel, under the management of Brown, as- 
sisted by Wattles, Socrates, and Unus, it is true, a fleet, of 
canoes might be beaten off ; but any accident to the Abra** 
ham would be very likely to prove fatal to the colony, in 
the event of an invasion. Instructions were given to 
Heaton to keep the schooner moving about, and particu- 
larly to make a trip as often as once in two months, to 
Ooroony’s country, in order to. look after the state 'of things 
there. The pretense was to be trade — beads, hatchets, 
and old iron being taken each time, in exchange for sandal- 
wood ; but the principal object was to keep an eye on the 
movements, and to get an insight into the policy, of the 
savages. 

After taking in a very considerable quantity of sandal- 
wood, and procuring eight active assistants from Ooroony 
the Rancocus got under way for Canton. By the Nesha- 
mony, which saw her into the offing, letters were sent back s 
to the Reef, when the governor squared away for his port. 
At the end of fifty days, the ship reached Canton, where a 
speedy and excellent sale was made of her cargo. So very 
lucrative did Mark make this transaction, that, finding him- 
self with assets after filling up with teas, he thought him- 
self justified in changing his course of proceeding. A 
small American brig, which was not deemed fit to double 
the capes, and to come on a stormy coast, was on sale. 
She could run several years in a sea as mild as the Pacific, 
and Mark purchased her for a song. He put as many 
useful things on board her as he could find, including sev- 
eral cows, etc. Dry English cows were not difficult to 
find, the ships from Europe often bringing out the animals, 
and turning them off when useless. Mark was enabled to 
purchase six, which, rightly enough, he thought would 
prove a great acquisition to the colony. A plentiful sup- 
ply of iron was also provided, as was ammunition, arms, 
and guns. The whole outlay, including the cost of the 
vessel, was less than seven thousand dollars ; which sum 
Mark knew he should receive in Philadelphia, on account 
of the personal property of Bridget, and with which he 
20 


30G 


THE crater. 


had made up his mind to replace the proceeds of the san- 
dal-wood, thus used, did those interested exact it. As for j 
the vessel, she sailed like a witch, was coppered and cop- j 
per-fastened, but was both old and weak. She had quar- 
ters, having been used once as a privateer, and mounted 
ten sixes. Her burden was two hundred tons, and her 
name the Mermaid. The papers were all American, and 
in perfect rule. 

The governor might not have made this purchase, had 
it not been for the circumstance that he met an old ac- 
quaintance in Canton, who had got married in Calcutta to 
a pretty and very well-mannered English girl — a step 
that lost him his berth, however, on board a Philadelphia 
ship. Saunders was two or three years Mark’s senior, and 
of an excellent disposition and character. When he heard 
the history of the colony, he professed a desire to join it, 
engaging to pick up a crew of Americans, who were in his 
own situation, or had no work on their hands, and to take 
the brig to the Reef. This arrangement was made and j 
carried out ; the Mermaid sailing for the crater, the day | 
before the Rancocus left for Philadelphia, having Bigelow j 
on board as pilot and first officer ; while Woolston shipped 
an officer to supply’ his place. The two vessels met in the 
China seas, and passed a week in company, when each 
steered her course ; the governor quite happy in thinking 
that he had made this provision for the good of his people. 
The arrival of the Mermaid would be an eventful day in 
the colony, on every account ; and, the instructions of 
Saunders forbidding his quitting the islands until the end 
of the year, her presence would be a great additional 
means of security. 

It is unnecessary for us to dwell on the passage of the 
Rancocus. In due time she entered the capes of the Del- 
aware, surprising all interested with her appearance. 
Friend Abraham White was dead, and the firm dissolved. 
But the property had all been transferred to the insurers 
by the payment of the amount underwritten, and Mark 
made his report at the office. The teas were sold to great 
advantage, and the whole matter was taken fairly into con* 


THE CRATER. 


SOT 

sideration. After deducting the sum paid the firm, princi- 
pal and interest, the insurance company resolved to give 
the ship, and the balance of the proceeds of the sale to 
Captain Woolston, as a reward for his integrity and pru- 
dence. Mark had concealed nothing, but stated what he 
had done in reference to the Mermaid, and told his whole 
story with great simplicity, and with perfect truth. The 
result was, that the young man got, in addition to the ship, 
which was legally conveyed to him, some eleven thousand 
dollars in hard money. Thus was honesty shown to be 
the best policy ! 

It is scarcely necessary to say that his success made 
Mark Woolston a great man, in a small way. Not only 
was he received with open arms by all of his own blood ; 
but Dr. Yardley now relented, and took him by the hand. 
A faithful account was rendered of his stewardship ; and 
Mark received as much ready money, on account of his 
wife, as placed somewhat more than twenty thousand dol- 
lars at his disjjosal. With this money he set to work, 
without losing a day, to make arrangements to return to 
Bridget and the crater; for he always deemed. that his 
proper abode, in preference to the Peak. In this feeling, 
his charming wife coincided ; both probably encouraging a 
secret interest in the former, in consequence of the solitary 
hours that had been passed there by the young husband, 
while his anxious partner was far away. 


308 


THE CRATER. 


i 


CHAPTER XX. j 

There is no gloom on earth, for God above 
Chastens in love; 

Transmuting sorrows into golden joy 
Free from alloy. 

His dearest attribute is still to bless, i 

And mall’s most welcome hymn is grateful cheerfulness. 

Moral Alchemt. 

The mode of proceeding now required great caution onj 
the part of Mark Woolston. His mind was fully made upl 
not to desert his islands, although this might easily be done,- 
by fitting out the ship for another voyage, filling her withl 
sandal-wood, and bringing off all who chose to abandon the^ 
place. But Woolston had become infatuated with the" 
climate, which had all the witchery of a low latitude with-j 
out any of its lassitude. The sea-breezes kept the frame 
invigorated, and the air reasonably cool, even at the Reef;, 
while on the Peak there was scarcely ever a day, in the. 
warmest months, when one could not labor at noon. Inj 
this respect the climate did not vary essentially from that] 
of Pennsylvania, the difference existing in the fact that 
there was no winter in his new country. Nothing takes 
such a hold on men as a delicious climate. They may not 
be sensible of all its excellences while in its enjoyment, 
but the want of it is immediately felt, and has an influence 
on all their pleasures. Even the scenery-hunter submits' 
to this witchery of climate, which casts a charm over the' 
secondary beauties of nature, as a sweet and placid temper 
renders the face of woman more lovely than the color of 
a skin, or the brilliancy of fine eyes. The Alps and the 
Appenhines furnish a standing proof of the truth of this 
fact. As respects grandeur, a startling magnificence, and 
all that at first takes the reason, as well as the tastes, by 


THE CRATER. 


309 


surprise, the first are vastly in advance of the last ; yet, no 
man of feeling or sentiment, probably ever dwelt a twelve- 
month amid each, without becoming more attatched to the 
last. We wonder at Switzerland, while we get to love 
Italy. The difference is entirely owing to climate ; for, 
did the Alps rise in a lower latitude, they would be abso- 
lutely peerless. 

But Mark Woolston had no thought of abandoning the 
crater and the Peak. Nor did he desire to people them at 
random, creating a population by any means, incorporating 
moral diseases in his body politic by the measures taken to 
bring it into existence. On the contrary, it was his wish, 
rather to procure just as much force as might be necessary 
to security, so divided in pursuits and qualities as to con- 
duce to comfort and civilization, and then to trust to the 
natural increase for the growth that might be desirable in 
the end. Such a policy evidently required caution and 
prudence. The reader will perceive that Governor Wool- 
ston was not influenced by the spirit of trade that is now 
so active, preferring happiness to wealth, and morals to 
power. 

Among Woolston’s acquaintances, there was a young 
man of about his own age, of the name of Pennock, who 
struck him as a person admirably suited for his purposes. 
This Pennock had married very young, and was already 
the father of three children. He began to feel the pressure 
of society, for he was poor. He was an excellent farmer, 
accustomed to toil, while he was also well educated, having 
been intended for one of the professiojjs. To Pennock 
Mark told his story, exhibited his proofs, and laid bare his 
whole policy, under a pledge of secrecy, offering at the 
same time to receive his friend, his wife, children, and two- 
unmarried sisters, into the colony. After taking time to 
reflect and to consult, Penncock accepted the offer as 
frankly as it had been made. From this time John 
Pennock relieved the governor, in a great measure, of . the 
duty of selecting the remaining emigrants, taking that 
oflice on himself. This allowed Mark to attend to his pur- 
chases, and to getting the ship ready for sea. Two of 


310 


THE CRATER. 


his own brothers, however, expressed a wish to join the 
new community, and Charles and Abraham Woolston were j 
received in the colony lists. Half a dozen more were ad- 
mitted, by means of direct application to the governor him- 
self, though the accessions were principally obtained 
through the negotiations and measures of Pennock. All 
was done with great secrecy, it being Mark’s anxious desire, 
on many accounts, not to attract public attention to his 
colony. 

The reasons were numerous and sufficient for this wishi 
to remain unknown. In the first place, the policy of re-* 

^ taining the monopoly of a trade that must be enormouslyj 
profitable, was too obvious to need any arguments to sup-w 
port it. So long as the sandal-wood lasted, so long would® 
it be in the power of the colonists to coin money ; while^ 
it was certain that competitors would rush in, the momentl 
the existence of this mine of wealth should be known.f 
-Then, the governor apprehended the cupidity and ambition^ 
of the old-established governments, when it should be' 
known that territory was to be acquired. It was scarcely 
possible for man to possess any portion of this earth by a 
title better than that with which Mark Woolston was in- 
vested with his domains. But, what is right compared to 
might ! Of his native country, so abused in our own times* 
for its rapacity and the desire to extend its dominions by 
any means, Mark felt no apprehension. Of all the power- 
ful nations of the present day, America, though not abso- 
lutely spotless, has probably the least to reproach herself 
with on the score of lawless and purely ambitious acqui- 
sitions. Even her conquests in open war have been few, 
and are not yet determined in character. In the end, it 
will be found that little will be taken that Mexico could 
keep ; and had that nation observed towards this, ordinary 
justice and faith, in her intercourse and treaties, that which 
has so suddenly and vigorously been done, would never 
have even been attempted. 

It may suit the policy of those who live under the same 
system, to decry those who do not ; but men are not so 
blind that they cannot sec the sun at noonday. One na« 


THE CRATER. 


311 


^;on makes war because its consul receives the rap of a 
fan ; and men of' a different origin, religion, and habits, are 
coerced into submission as the consequence. Another 
nation burns towns, and destroys, their people in thousands, 
because their governors will not consent to admit a poison- 
ous drug into their territories ; an offense against the laws 
of trade that can only be expiated by the ruthless march 
of the conqueror. Yet the ruling men of both these com- 
munities affect a great sensibility when the long-slumbering 
young lion of the West rouses himself in his lair, after 
twenty years of forbearance, and stretches out a paw in 
resentment for outrages that no other nation, conscious of 
his strength, would have endured for as many months, be- 
cause, forsooth, he is the young lion of the West. Never 
mind : by the time New Zealand and Tahiti are brought 
under the yoke, the Californians may be admitted to an 
equal participation in the rights of American citizens. 

The governor was fully aware of the danger he ran of 
having claims, of some sort or other, set up to his islands, 
if he revealed their existence ; and he took the greatest 
pains to conceal the fact. The arrival of the , Rancocus 
was mentioned in the papers, as a matter of course ; but 
it was in no way to induce the reader to suppose she had 
met with her accident in the midst of a naked reef, and 
principally through the loss of her men ; and that, when a 
few of the last were regained, the voyage was successfully 
resumed and terminated. In that day, the great discovery 
had not been made that men were merely incidents of 
newspapers ; but the world had the folly to believe that 
newspapers were incidents of society, and were subject to 
its rules and interests. Some respect was paid- to private 
rights, and the reign of gossip had not commenced.^ 

1 We hold in our possession a curious document, the publication of which 
might rebuke this spirit of gossip, and give a salutary warning to certain 
managers of the press, who no sooner hear a rumor than they think them- 
selves justified in embalming it among the other truths ^)f their daily sheets. 
The occurrences of life brought us in collision, legally, with an editor; and 
we obtained a verdict against him. Dissatisfied with defeat, as is apt to be 
the case, he applied for a new trial. Such an application was to be sustained 
by affidavits, and he made his own, as usual. Now, in this affidavit, our com- 
petitor swore distinctly and unequivocally to certain alleged facts (we think to 


312 


THE CRATER. 


In the last century, however, matters were not carried ' 
quite so far as they are at present. No part of this com - 1 
munity, claiming any portion of respectability, was willing;! 
to publish its own sense of inferiority so openly, as to gos- 
sip about its fellow-citizens, for no more direct admissions 
of inferiority can- be made than this wish to comment oni 
the subject of any one’s private concerns. Consequently 
Mark and his islands escaped. There was no necessity 
for his telling the insurers anything about the Peak, for 
instance, and on that part of the subject, therefore, he 
wisely held his tongue. Nothing, in short, was said of any 
colony at all. The manner in which the crew had been 
driven away to leeward, and recovered, was told minutely, t| 
and the whole process by which the ship was saved. The 
property used, Mark said had been appropriated to his 
wants, without going into details, and the main results 
being so very satisfactory, the insurers asked no further. 

As soon as off the capes, the governor set about a serious 
•investigation of the state of his affairs. In the way of 
cargo, a great many articles had been laid in, which ex- 
perience told him would be useful. He took with him 
such farming tools as Friend Abraham White had not 
thouglit of furnishing to the natives of Fejee, and a few 
seeds that had been overlooked by that speculating philan- 
thropist. There were half a dozen more cows on board, 
as well as an improved breed of hogs. Mark carried out, 
also, a couple of mares, for, while many horses could never 
be much needed in his islands, a few would always be ex- 
ceedingly useful. Oxen were much wanted, but one of( 

the number of six), every one of which was untrue. Fortunately for the< 
party implicated,- the matter sworn to was purely nd captandum stuff, and, in i 
a lee;al sense, not pertinent to the issue. This prevented it from being perjury 
in law. Still, it was all untrue, and nothing was easier than to show it. 
Now, we do not doubt that the person thus swearing believed all that he swore 
to, or he would not have had the extreme folly to expose himself as he did ; , 
but he was so much in the habit of publishing gossip in his journal, that,' 
when an occasion arrived, he did not hesitate about swearing to what he hadi 
read in other journals, without taking the trouble to inquire if it were true!'* 
One of these days we may lay all this, along with much other similar proof 
of the virtue there is in gossip, so plainly before the world, that he who rum t 
may read. 


THE CKATER. 


313 


his new colonists had yoked his cows, and it was thought 
they might be made useful in a moderate degree, until 
their stouter substitutes could be reared. Carts and wag- 
ons were provided in sufficient numbers. A good stock 
of iron in bars was laid in, in addition to that which was 
wrought into nails, and other useful articles. Several 
thousand dollars in coin were also provided, being princi- 
pally in small pieces, including copper. But all the emi- 
grants took more or less specie with them. 

A good deal of useful lumber was stowed in the lower 
hold, though the mill by this time furnished a pretty good 
home supply. The magazine was crammed with ammuni- 
tion, and the governor had purchased four light field-guns, 
two three-pounders and two twelve-pound howitzers, with 
their equipments. He had also brought six long iron 
twelves, ship-guns, with their carriages, etc. The last he 
intended for his batteries, the carronades being too light 
for steady work, and throwing their shot too wild for a 
long range. The last could be mounted on board the dif- 
ferent vessels. The Rancocus, also, had an entire new 
armament, having left all her old guns but two behind her. 
Two hundred muskets were laid in, with fifty brace of 
pistols. In a word, as many arms were provided as it was 
thought could, in any emergency, become necessary. 

But it was the human portion of his cargo that the gov- 
ernor, rightly enough, deemed to be of the greatest im- 
portance. Much care had been bestowed on the selection, 
which had given all concerned in it not a little trouble. 
Morals were the first interest attended to. No one was 
received but those who bore perfectly good characters. 
The next thing was to make a proper division among the 
various trades and pursuits of life. There were carpen- 
ters, masons, blacksmiths, tailors, shoemakers, etc., or, one 
of each, and sometimes more. Every man was married, 
the only exceptions being in the cases of younger brothers 
and sisters, of whom about a dozen were admitted along 
with their relatives. The whole of the ship’s betwixt 
decks was fitted up for the reception of these emigrants, 
who were two hundred and seven in number, besides chil« 


314 . THE CRATER. ! 

dren. Of Ihe last there were more than fifty, but they 
were principally of an age to allow of their being put into ! 
holes and corners. ! 

Mark Woolston was much too sensible a man to fall into 
any of the modern absurdities on the subject of equality, 
and a community of interests. One or two individuals, 
even in that day, had wished to accompany him, who were 
for forming an association in which all property should be 
shared in common, and in which nothing was to be done 
but that which was right. Mark had not the least objec- 
tion in the world to the last proposition, and would have 
been glad enough to see it carried out to the letter, though 
he differed essentially with the applicants, as to the mode 
of achieving so desirable an end. He was of opinion that 
civilization could not exist without' property, or property 
without a direct personal interest in both its accumulation . 
and its preservation. They, on the other hand, were car- 
ried away by the crotchet that community-labor was better 
than individual labor, and that a hundred men would be 
happier and l^etter off with their individualities compressed 
into one, than by leaving them in a hundred subdivisions, 
as they had been placed by nature. The theorists might 
have been right, had it been in their power to compress a 
hundred individuals into one, but it was not. After all 
their efforts, they would still remain a hundred individuals, 
merely banded together under more restraints, and with less 
liberty than are common. 

Of all sophisms, that is the broadest which supposes per- 
sonal liberty is extended by increasing the power of the 
community. Individuality i^ annihilated in a thousand 
things, by the community-power that already exists in this 
country, where persecution often follows from a man’s 
thinking and acting differently from his neighbors, though 
the law professes to protect him. The reason why this 
power becomes so very formidable, and is often so oppres- 
sively tyrannical in its exhibition, is very obvious. In 
countries where the power is in the hands of the few, public 
sympathy often sustains the man who resists its injustice ; 
but no public sympathy can sustain him who is oppressed 


THE CRATER. 


315 


by the public itself. This 'oppression does not often exhibit 
itself in the form of law ; but rather in its denial. He who 
has a clamor raised against him by numbers, appeals iu 
vain to numbers for justice, though his claim may be clear 
as the sun at noonday. The divided responsibility of 
bodies of men prevents anything like the control of con- 
science, and the most ruthless wrongs are committed, 
equally without reflection and without remorse. 

Mark Woolston had thought too much on the subject, to 
!be the dupe of any of these visionary theories. Instead of 
fancying that men never knew anything previously to the 
last ten years of the eighteenth century, he was of the 
opinion of the wisest man who ever lived, that “ there was 
nothing new under the sun.” That “ circumstances might 
alter eases ” he was willing enough to allow, nor did he 
intend to govern the crater by precisely the same laws as 
he would govern Pennsylvania, or Japan; but he well un- 
derstood, nevertheless, that certain great moral truths ex- 
isted as the law of the human family, and that they were 
not to be set aside by visionaries ; and least of all, with 
impunity. 

Everything connected with the colony was strictly prac- 
tical. The decision of certain points had unquestionably 
given the governor trouble, though he got along with them 
pretty well, on the whole. A couple of young lawyers had 
desired to go, but he had the prudence to reject them. 
Law', as a science, is a very useful study, beyond a question ; 
but the governor, rightly enough, fancied that his people 
could do without so much science for a few years longer. 
Then another doctor volunteered his services. Mark re- 
membered the quarrels between his father and his father- 
in-law, and thought it better to die under one theory tlian 
under two. As regards a clergyman, Mark had greater 
difficulty. The question of sect was not as seriously de- 
bated half a century ago as it is to-day ; still it was de- 
bated. Bristol had a very ancient society, of the persua- 
sion of the Anglican church, and Mark’s family belonged 
to it. Bridget, however, was a Presbyterian, and no small 
portion of the new colonists were what is called Wet 


816 


THE CRATER. 


Quakers ; that is, Friends who are not very partic^ulai in 
their opinions or observances. Now, religion often caused , 
more f :*ids than anything else ; still it was impossible to ' 
have a priest for every persuasion, and one ought to suffice 
for the whole colony. The question was of what sect should 
that one clergyman be ? So many prejudices were to be 
consulted, that the governor was about to abandon the 
project in despair, when accident determined the point. 
Among Heaton’s relatives was a young man of the name 
of Hornblower, no bad appellation, by the way, for one i 
who had to sound so many notes of warning, who had re- 
ceived priest’s orders from the hands of the well-known 
^Dr. White, so long the presiding Bishop of America, and 
whose constitution imperiously demanded a milder climate 
than that in which he then lived. As respects him, it be- 
came a question purely of humanity, the divine being too , 
poor to travel on his own account, and he was received on | 
board the Rancocus, with his wife, his sister, and two 
children, that he might have the benefit of living within j 
the tropics. The matter was fully explained to the other I 
emigrants, who could not raise objections if they would, : 
but who really were not disposed to do so in a case of 
such obvious motives. A good portion of them, probably, 
came to the conclusion that Episcopalian ministrations 
were better than none, though, to own the truth, the liturgy 
gave a good deal of scandal to a certain portion of their 
number. Reading prayers was so profane a thing, that , 
these individuals could scarcely consent to be present at i 
such a vain ceremony ; nor was the discontent, on this 
preliminary point, fully disposed of until the governor once " 
asked the principal objector how he got along with the ^ 
Lord’s Prayer, which was not only written and printed, 
but which usually was committed to memory ! Not with- ; 
standing this difficulty, the emigrants did get along with it ' 
without many qualms, and most of them dropped quietly J 
into the habit of worshiping agreeably to a liturgy, just r 
as if it were not tlie terrible profanity that some of them ^ 
had imagined. In this way, many of our most intense pre« \ 
judices get lost in new communications. j 


THE CRATER. 


317 


It is not our inteution to accompany the Raucocus, day 
by day, in her route. She touched at Rio, and sailed 
again at the end of eight-and-forty hours. The passage 
round the Horn was favorable, and having^got well to the 
westward, away the ship went for her port. One of the 
cows got down, and died before it could be relieved, in a 
gale off the Cape ; but no other accident worth mentioning 
occurred. A child died with convulsions, in consequence 
of teething, a few days later ; but this did not diminish 
the number on board, as three were born the same week. 
The sliip had now been at sea one hundred and sixty days, 
counting the time passed at Rio, and a general impatience 
to arrive pervaded the vessel. If the truth must be said, 
some of the emigrants began to doubt the governor’s ability 
to find his islands again, though none doubted of their ex- 
istence. The Kannakas, however, declared that they 
began to smell home, and it is odd enough, that this decla 
ration, coming as it did from ignorant men, who made it 
merely on a fanciful suggestion, obtained more credit with 
most of the emigrants, than all the governor’s instruments 
and observations. 

One day, a little before noon it was, Mark appeared on 
deck with his quadrant, and as he cleaned the glasses of 
the instrument, he announced his conviction that the ship 
would shortly make the group of the crater. A current 
had set him farther north than he intended to go, but 
having hauled up to southwest, he waited only for noon to 
ascertain his latitude, to be certain of his position. As 
the governor maintained a proper distance from his people, 
and was not in the habit of making unnecessary commu- 
nications to them, his present frankness told for so much 
the more, and it produced a very general excitement in the 
ship. All eyes were on the look-out for land, greatly in- 
creasing the chances of its being shortly seen. The ob- 
servation came at noon, as is customary, and the governor 
found he was about thirty miles to the northward of the 
group of islands he was seeking. By his calculation, he 
was still to the eastward of it, and he hauled up, hoping to 
fall in with the land well to windward. After standing on 


818 


THE CRATER. 


three hours in the right direction, the look-outs frona the 
cross-trees declared no land was visible ahead. For one 
moment the dreadful apprehension of the group’s having 
sunk under another convulsion of nature crossed Mark’s 
mind, but he entertained that notion for a minute only. 
Then came the cry of “ Sail ho ! ” to cheer everybody, and 
to give them something else to think of. 

This was the first vessel the Rancocus had seen since 
she left Rio. It was to windward, and appeared to be 
standing down before the wind. In an hour’s time the 
two vessels were near enough to each other to enable the 
glass to distinguish objects ; and the quarter-deck on board 
the Rancocus, were all engaged in looking at the stranger. 

“ ’Tis the Mermaid,” said Mark to Betts, “ and it’s all 
right. Though what that craft can be doing here to wind- 
ward of the islands is more than I can imagine ! ” 

“ Perhaps, sir, they ’s a cruising arter us,” answered 
Bob. “ This is about the time they ought to be expectin’ 
on us ; and who knows but Madam Woolston and Friend 
Marthy may not have taken it into their heads to come out 
a bit to see arter their lawful husbands ? ” 

The governor smiled at this conceit, but continued his 
observations in silence. 

“ She behaves very strangely, Betts,” Mark, at length 
said. “ Just take a look at her. She yaws like a galliot 
in a gale, and takes the whole road like a drunken man. 
There can be no one at the helm.” 

“ And how lubberly, sir, her canvas is set ! Just look at 
that main-taw-sail, sir ; one of the sheets isn’t home by a 
fathom, while the yard is braced in, till it’s almost aback ! ” 
The governor walked the deck for five minutes in in- 
tense thought, though occasionally he stopped to look at 
the brig, now within a league of them. Then he suddenly 
called out to Bob, to “ see all clear for action, and to get 
everything ready to go to quarters.” 

This order set every one in motion. The women and 
children were hurried below, and the men, who had been 
constantly exercised, now, for five months, took their sta- 
tions with the regularity of old seamen. The guns were 


THE CRATER. 


319 


cast loose — ten eighteen-pound carronades and two nines, 
the new armament — cartridges were got ready, shot placed 
at hand, and all the usual dispositions for. combat were 
made. While this was doing, the two vessels were fast 
drawing nearer to each other, and were soon within gun- 
shot. But no one on board the Rancocus knew what to 
make of the evolutions of the Mermaid. Most of her or- 
dinary square-sails were set, though not one of them all 
was sheeted home, or well hoisted. An attempt had been 
made to lay the yards square, but one yard-arm was braced 
in too far, another not far enough, and nothing like order 
appeared to have prevailed at the sail-trimming. But, the 
conning of the brig was the most remarkable. Her general 
course would seem to be dead before the wind ; but she 
yawed incessantly, and often so broadly, as to catch some 
of her light sails aback. Most vessels take a good deal of 
room in running down before the wind, and in a swell ; 
but the Mermaid took a great deal more than was com- 
mon, and could scarce be said to look any way in par- 
ticular. All this the governor observed, as the vessels 
approached nearer and nearer, as well as the movements 
of those of the crew who showed themselves in the rig- 
ging. 

“ Clear away a bow-gun,” cried Mark to Betts ; “ some- 
thing dreadful must have happened ; that brig is in posses- 
sion of the savages, who do not know how to handle her ! ” 

This announcement produced a stir on board the Ran- 
cocus, as may well be imagined. If the savages had the 
brig, they probably had the group also ; and what had be- 
come of the colonists ? The next quarter of an hour was 
one of the deepest expectation with all in the ship, and of 
intense agony with Mark. Betts was greatly disturbed 
also ; nor would it have been, safe for one of Waally’s men 
to have been within reach of his arm, just then. Could it 
be possible that Ooroony had yielded to temptation and 
played them false? The governor could hardly believe itj 
and as for Betts, he protested loudly it could not be so. 

“ Is that bow-gun ready ? ” demanded the governor. 

“ Aye, aye, sir ; all ready.” 


820 


THE CRATER. 

“ Fire, but elevate well ; we will only frighten them, at 
first. Woe betide them, if they resist.” 

Betts did fire, and to the astonishment of everybody, the 
brig returned a broadside ! But resistance ceased with this 
one act of energy, if it could be so termed." Although five 
'guns were actually fired, and nearly simultaneously, no 
aim was even attempted. The shot all flew off at a tan- 
gent from the position of the ship ; and no harm was done 
to any but the savages themselves, of whom three or four j 
were injured by the recoils. From the moment the noise ■ 
and smoke were produced, everything like order ceased 
on board the brig, which was filled with savages. The i 
vessel broached to, and the sails caught aback. All this 
time, the Rancocus was steadily drawing nearer, with an 
intent to board ; but, unwilling to expose his people, most 
of whom were unpracticed in strife, in a hand-to-hand con- j 
flict with ferocious savages, the governor ordered a gun | 
loaded with grape to be discharged into the brig. Thi^ 
decided the affair at once. Ilalf a dozen were killed ot i 
wounded ; some ran below ; a few took refuge in the top ; ' 
but most, without the slightest hesitation, jumped over- 
board. To the surprise of all who saw them, the men in 
the water began to swim directly to windward ; a circum- \ 
stance which indicated that either land or canoes were to ; 
be found in that quarter of the ocean. Seeing the state j 
of things on board the brig, Mark luffed up under her j 
counter, and laid her aboard. In a minute, he and twenty . 
chosen men were on her decks ; in another, the vessels " 
were again clear of each other, and the Mermaid under 
command. 

No sooner did the governor discharge his duties as a 
seaman, than he passed below. In the cabin he found Mr. 
Saunders (or Captain Saunders, as he was called by the 
colonists), bound hand and foot. His steward was in the 
same situation, and Bigelow was found, also a prisoner, in 
the steerage. These were all the colonists on board, and 
all but two who had been on board, when the vessel was 
taken. 

Captain Saunders could tell the governor very little moie 


THE CRATER. 


821 


than Ik saw wkh his own eyes. One fact of importance, 
however, he could and did communicate, which was this : 
Instead of being to windward of the crater, as Mark sup- 
posed, he was to leeward of it; the currents no doubt 
having set the ship to the westward faster than had been 
thought. -vRancocus Island would have been made by sun- 
j set, had the ship stood on in the course she was steering 
I when she made the Mermaid. 

I But the most important fact was the safety of the fe- 
I males. They were all at the Peak, where they had lived 
! for the last six months, or ever since the death of the good 
j Ooroony had again placed Waally in the ascendant. 
I Ooroonj’^’s son was overturned immediately on the decease 
j of the father, who died a natural death, and Waally disre- 
garded the taboo, which he persuaded his people could 
I have no sanctity as applied to the whites. The plunder of 
these last, with the possession of the treasure of iron and 
copper that was to be found in their vessels, had indeed 
been the principal bribe with which the turbulent and 
ambitious chief regained his power. The war did not 
break out, however, as soon as Waally had effected the 
revolution in his own group. On the contrary, that wily 
politician had made so many protestations of friendship 
after that event, which he declared to be necessary to the 
peace of his island ; had collected so much sandal-wood, 
and permitted it to be transferred to the crater, where a 
cargo was already stored ; and had otherwise made so 
many amicable demonstrations, as completely to deceive 
the colonists. No one had anticipated an invasion ; but, 
on the contrary, preparations were making at the Peak for 
the reception of Mark, whose return had now been ex- 
pected daily for a fortnight. 

The Mermaid had brought over a light freight of wood 
' from Betto’s group, and had discharged at the crater. 
This done, she had sailed with the intention of going out 
to cruise for the Rancocus, to carry the news of the 
colony, all of which was favorable, with the exception of 
the death of Ooroony and the recent events ; but was 
lying in the roads, outside of everything — the Western 
21 


822 


THE CRATER. 


Roads, as tlie\ were called, or those nearest to the ether 
group — waiting for the appointed hour of sailing, which 
was to be the very morning of the day in which she was 
fallen in with by the governor. Her crew consisted only 
of Captain Saunders, Bigelow, the cook and steward, and 
two of the people engaged at Canton — one of whom was 
a very good-for-nothing Chinaman, The two last had the 
look-out, got drunk, and permitted a fleet of hostile canoes 
to get alongside in the dark, being knocked on the head 
and tossed overboard, as the penalty of this neglect of 
duty. The others owed their lives to the circumstance of 
being taken in their sleep, when resistance was out of the 
question. In the morning, the brig’s cable was cut, sail 
was set, after a fashion, and an attempt was made to can*y 
the vessel over to Betto’s group. It is very questionable 
whether she ever could have arrived ; but that point 
was disposed of by the opportune appearance of the Ran- 
cocus. 

Saunders could communicate nothing of the subsequent 
course of the invaders. He had been kept below the whole 
time, and did not even know many canoes composed the 
fleet. The gang in possession of the Mermaid was un- 
derstood, however, to be but a very small part of Waally’s 
force present, that chief leading .in person. By certain 
half-comprehended declarations of his conquerors. Captain 
Saunders understood that the rest had entered the channel, 
with a view to penetrate to the crater, where Socrates, 
Unus, and Wattles were residing, with their wives and fami- 
lies, and where no greater force was left when the Mer- 
maid sailed. The property there, however, was out of all 
proportion in value to the force of those whose business it 
was to take care of it. In consequence of the Rancocus's 
removal, several buildings had been constructed on the 
Reef, and one house of very respectable diniensions had 
been put up on the Summit. It is true, these houses were 
not very highly finished ; but they were of great value to 
persons in the situation of the colonists. Most of the 
hogs, moreover, were still rooting and tearing up the 
thousand-acre prairie ; where, indeed, they roamed very 


THE CRATER. 


323 


much in a state of nature. Socrates occasionally carried 
to them a boat-load of “ truck ” from the crater, in ordei 
to keep up amicable relations with them ; but they were 
little better than so many wild animals, in one sense, though 
there had not yet been time materially to change their nat- 
ures. In the whole, including young and old, there must 
have been near two hundred of these animals altogether, 
their increase being very rapid. Then a large amount of 
the stores sent from Canton, including most of the iron, 
was in store at the crater ; all of which would lay at 
the mercy of Waally’s men; for the resistance to be ex- 
pected from the three in possession, could not amount to 
much. 

The governor was prompt enough in his decision, as 
soon as he understood the facts of the case. The first 
thing was to bring the vessels close by the wind, and to 
pass as near as possible over the ground where the swim- 
mers were to be found ; for Mark could not bear the idea 
of abandoning a hundred of his fellow-creatures in the 
midst of the ocean, though they were enemies and savages. 
By making short stretches, and tacking two or three times, 
the colonists found themselves in the midst of the swim- 
mers ; not one in ten of whom would probably ever 
have reached the land, but for the humanity of their 
foe. Alongside of the Mermaid were three or four canoes; 
and these were cast adrift at the right moment, without 
any parleying. The Indians were quick enough at under- 
standing the meaning of this, and swam to the canoes 
from all sides, though still anxious to get clear of the ves- 
sels. On board the last canoe the governor put all his 
prisoners, when he deemed himself happily quit of the 
whole gang. 

There were three known channels by which the Ranco- 
cus could be carried quite up to the crater. Mark chose 
that which came in from the northward, both because it 
was the nearest, and because he could lay his course in 
it, without tacking, for most of the way. Acquainted 
now with his position, Mark had no difficulty in finding 
the entrance of this channel. Furnishing the Mermaid 


324 


THE CRATER. 


witli a dozen hands, she was sent to the western I’oads, 
to intercept Waally’s fleet, should it be coming out witli 
the booty. In about an hour after the Rancocus altered 
her course, she made the land ; and, just as the sun was 
setting, she got so close in as to be able to anchor in the 
northern roads, where there was not only a lee, but good 
holding-ground. Here the ship passed the night, the gov- 
ernor not liking to venture into the narrow passages in 
the dark. 


THE CRATER. 


325 


CHAPTER XXI. 

Fancy can charm and feeling bless 
With sweeter hours than fashion knows; 

There is no calmer quietness, 

Than home around the bosom throws. 

Percival. 


Although the governor deemed it prudent to anchor 
for the night, he did not neglect the precaution of reconnoi- 
tring. Betts was sent towards the Reef, in a boat well 
armed and manned, in order to ascertain the state of things 
in that quarter. His instructions directed him to push for- 
ward as far as he could, and if possible to hold some sort 
of communication with Socrates, who might now be consid- 
ered as commander at the point assailed. 

Fortunate was it that the governor bethought him of 
this measure. As Betts had the ship’s launch, which car- 
ried two lugg-sails, his progress was both easy and rapid, 
and he actually got in sight of the Reef before midnight. 
To his astonishment, all seemed to be tranquil, and Betts 
at first believed that the savages had completed their work 
and departed. Being a bold fellow, however, a distant re- 
connoitring did not satisfy him ; and on he went, until his 
boat fairly lay alongside of the natural quay of the Reef 
itself. Here he landed, and marched towards the entrance 
of the crater. The gate was negligently open, and on en- 
tering the spacious area, the men found all quiet, without 
any indications of recent violence. Betts knew that those 
who dwelt in this place, usually preferred the Summit for 
sleeping, and he ascended to one of the huts that had been 
erected there. Here he found the whole of the little garri- 
son of the group, buried in sleep, and totally without any 
apprehension of the danger which menaced them. As it 
now appeared, Waally’s men had not yet shown themselves^ 


326 


THE CRATER. 


and Socrates knew nothing at all of what had happened to 
the brig. 

Glad enough was the negro to shake hands with Betts, 
and to hear that Master Mark was so near at hand, with a 
powerful reinforcement. The party already arrived might 
indeed be termed the last, for the governor had sent with 
his first officer, on this occasion, no less than five-and-twerity 
men, each completely armed. With such a garrison Betts 
deemed the crater safe, and he sent back the launch, with 
four seamen in it, to report the condition in which he had 
found matters, and to communicate all else that he had 
learned. This done, he turned his attention to the defenses 
of the place. 

According to Socrates’ account, no great loss in property 
would be likely to occur, could the colonists make good the 
Beef against their invaders. The Abraham was over at 
the Peak, safe enough in the cove, as was the~Neshamony 
and several of the boats, only two or^fee of the smaller 
of the last being with him. The hogs and cows were 
most exposed, though nearly half of the stock was now 
habitually kept on the Peak. Still, a couple of hundred 
hogs were on the Prairie, as were no less than eight horned 
cattle, including calves. The loss of the last would be 

greatly felt, and it was much to be feared, since the 

creatures were very gentle, and might be easily caught. 
Betts, however, had fewer apprehensions touching the 
cattle than for the hogs, since the latter might be slain with 
arrows, while he was aware that Waally wished to obtain 
the first alive. 

Agreeably to the accounts of Socrates, the progress of 
vegetation had been very great throughout the entire 
group. Grass grew wherever the seed was sown, provided 
anything like soil existed, and the Prairie was now a vast 
range, most of which was green, and all of which was 
firm enough to bear a hoof. The trees, of all sorts, 

were flourishing also, and Betts was assured he would not 

know the group again when he came to see it by daylight. 
All this was pleasant intelligence, at least, to the eager lis- 
teners among the new colonists, who had now beet so 


THE CRATER. 


327 


long on board ship, that anything in the shape of terra 
firma^ and of verdure appeared to them like paradise. 
But Betts had too many things to think of, just then, to 
give much heed to the eulogium of Socrates, and he soon 
bestowed all his attention on the means of defense. 

As there was but one way of approaching the crater, 
unless by water, and that was along the hog pasture and 
across the plank bridge. Bob felt the prudence of im- 
mediately taking possession of the pass. He ordered Soc- 
rates to look to the gate, where he stationed a guard, and 
went himself, with ten men, to make sure of the bridge. 

I It was true, Waally’s men could swim, and would not be 
very apt to pause long at the basin ; but it would be an 
advantage to fight them while in the water, that ought not 
to be thrown away. The carronades were all loaded, 
moreover ; and these precautions taken, and sentinels 
I posted, Betts suffered his men to sleep on their arms, if 
sleep they could. Their situation was so novel, that few 
I availed themselves of the privilege, though their command- 
; ing officer, himself, was soon snoring most musically, 
j As might have been expected, Waally made his assault 
I just as the day appeared. Before that time, however, the 
■ launch had got back to the ship, and the latter was under 
i way, coming fast towards the crater. Unknown to all, 

I though anticipated by Mark, the Mermaid had entered the 
western passage, and was beating up through it, closing 
fast also on Waally’s rear. Such was the state- of things, 
when the yell of the assailants was heard. 

Waally made his first push for th^ bridge, expecting to 
find it unguarded, and hoping to cross it unresisted. He 
knew that the ship was gone, and no longer dreaded her 
fire ; but he was fully aware that the Summit had its guns, 
and he wished to seize them while his men were still im- 
pelled by the ardor of a first onset. Those formidable en- 
gines of war were held in the most profound respect by 
all his people, and Waally knew the importance of success 
in a rapid movement. He had gleaned so much informa- 
tion concerning the state of the Reef, that he expected no 
great resistance fully believing that, now he had seized 


328 


THE CRATER. 


the Mermaid, his enemies would be reduced in numbers to 
less than half a dozen. In all this, he was right enough ; 
and there can be no question that Socrates and his whole 
party, together with the Reef, and for that matter, the en- 
tire group, would have fallen into his hands, but for the 
timely arrival of the reinforcement. The yell arose when 
it was ascertained that the bridge was drawn in, and it was 
succeeded by a volley from the guard posted near it, on 
the Reef. This commenced the strife, which immediately 
raged with great fury, and with prodigious clamor. Waally 
had all his muskets fired, too, though as yet he saw no 
enemy, and did not know in what direction to aim. He 
could see men moving about on the Reef, it is true, but it 
was only at moments, as they mostly kept themselves be- 
hind the covers. After firing his muskets, the chief issued 
an order for a charge, and several hundreds of his warriors 
plunged into the basin, and began to swim towards the 
point to be assailed. This movement admonished Betts of 
the prudence of retiring towards the gate, which he did in 
good order, and somewhat ‘deliberately. This time, Waally 
actually got his men upon the Reef without a panic and 
without loss. They landed in a crowd, and were soon 
rushing in all directions, eager for plunder, and thirsting 
for blood. Betts was enabled, notwithstanding, to enter 
the gate, which he did without delay, perfectly satisfied 
that all efforts of his to resist the torrent without must be 
vain. As soon as his q^arty had entered, the gate was 
closed, and Betts was at liberty to bestow all his care on 
the defense of the crater. 

The great extent of the citadel, which contained an 
area of not less than a hundred acres, it will be remem- 
bered, rendered its garrison very insufficient for a siege. 
It is probable that no one there would have thought of 
defending it, but for the certainty of powerful support 
being at hand. This certainty encouraged the garrison, 
rendering their exertions more ready and cheerful. Betts 
divided his men into parties of two, scattering them along 
the Summit, with orders to be vigilant, and to support 
each other. It was well known that a man could not 


THE CRATER. 


329 


enter from without unless by the gate, or aided by ladders, 
or some other mechanical invention. The time necessary 
to provide the last would bring broad daylight, and enable 
the colonists to march such a force to the menaced point, 
as would be pretty certain to prove sufficient to resist the 
assailants. The gate itself was commanded by a carron- 
ade, and was watched by a guard. 

Great was the disappointment of Waally when he as- 
certained, by personal examination, that the Summit could 
not be scaled, even by the most active of his party, with 
out recourse to assistance, by means of artificial contriv- 
ances. He had the sagacity to collect all his men imme- 
diately beneath the natural walls, where they were alone 
safe from the fire of the guns, but where they were also 
useless. A large pile of iron, an article so coveted, was 
in plain sight, beneath a shed, but he did not dare to send 
a single hand to touch it. since it would have brought the 
adventurer under fire. A variety of other articles, almost 
as tempting, though not perhaps of the same intrinsic 
value, lay also in sight, but were tabooed by the magic of 
powder and balls. Eleven hundred warriors, as was after- 
wards ascertained, landed on the Reef that eventful morn- 
ing, and assembled under the walls of the crater. A hun- 
dred more remained in the canoes, which lay about a 
league off, in the western passage, or to leeward, awaiting 
the result of the enterprise. 

The first effort made by Waally was to throw a force 
upward, by rearing one man on another’s shoulders. This 
scheme succeeded in part, but the fellow who first showed 
his head above the perpendicular part of the cliff, received 
a bullet in his brains. The musket was fired by the hands 
of Socrates. This one discharge brought down the whole 
fabric, several of those who fell sustaining serious injuries, 
in the way of broken bones. The completely isolated 
position of tlie crater, which stood, as it might be, aloof 
from all surrounding objects, added materially to its 
strength in a military sense, and Waally was puzzled how 
to overcome difficulties that might have embarrassed a 
more civilized soldier. For the first time in his life, that 


330 


THE CRATER. 


warrior had encountered a sort of fortress, which could bo 
entered only by regular approaches, unless it might be car 
ried by a coup de main. At the latter the savages were 
expert enough, and on it they had mainly relied ; but, dis- 
appointed in this respect, they found themselves thrown 
back on resources that were far from being equal to the 
emergency. 

Tired of inactivity, Waally finally decided on making as, 
desperate effort. The ship-yard was still kept up as a 
place for the repairing of boats, etc., and it always had 
more or less lumber lying in, or near it. vSelecting a party 
of a hundred resolute men, and placing them under the 
orders of one of his bravest chiefs, Waally sent them off, 
on the run, to bring as much timber, boards, planks, etc.,f 
as they could carry, within the cover of the cliffs. Now| 
Betts had foreseen the probability of this very sortie, and^ 
had leveled one of his carronades, loaded to the muzzlcv 
with canister, directly at the largest pile of the planks. 
No sooner did the adventurers appear, therefore, than he 
blevv his match. The savages were collected around the 
planks in a crowd, when he fired his gun. A dozen of 
them fell, and the rest vanished like so much dust scat- ' 
tered by a whirlwind. • j 

Just at that moment, the cry passed along the Summit 
that the Rancocus was in sight. The governor must have 
heard the report of the gun, for he discharged one in re- 
turn, an encouraging signal of his approach. In a minute, 
a third came from the westward, and Betts saw the sails of 
the Mermaid over the low land. It is scarcely necessary 
to add, that the reports of the two guns from a distance, 
and the appearance of the two vessels, put an end at 
once to all Waally’s schemes, and induced him to com- 
mence, with the least possible delay, a second retreat from 
the spdt which, like Nelson’s frigates, might almost be said 
to be imprinted on his heart. 

Waally retired successfully, if not with much dignity. 
At a given signal his men rushed for the water, plunged in 
and swam across the basin again. It was in Betts’s power 
to have killed many on the retreat, but he was averse to 


THE CRATER. 


331 


shedding blood unnecessarily. Fifty lives, more or less, 
could be of no great moment in the result, as soon as a re- 
treat was decided on ; and the savages were permitted to 
retire, and to carry off their killed and wounded without 
molestation. The last was done by wheeling forward the 
planks, and crossing at the bridge. 

It was far easier, however, for Waally to gain his canoes, 
than to know which way to steer after he had reached them. 
The Mermaid cut off his retreat by the western passage, 
and the Rancocus was coming fast along the northern. In 
order to reach either the eastern, or the southern, it would 
be necessary to pass within gun-shot of the Reef, and, what 
was more, to run the gauntlet between the crater and the 
Rancocus. To this danger Waally was compelled to sub- 
mit since he had no other means of withdrawing his fleet. 
It was true, that by paddling to windward, he greatly les- 
sened the danger he ran from the two vessels, since it 
would not be in their power to overtake him in the narrow 
channels of the group, so long as he went in the wind’s 
eye. It is probable that the savages understood this, and 
that the circumstance greatly encouraged them in the effort 
they immediately made to get into the eastern passage. 
Betts permitted them to pass the Reef, without firing at 
them again, though some of the canoes were at least half 
an hour within the range of his guns, while doing so. It 
was lucky for the Indians that the Rancocus did not arrive 
until the last of their party were as far to windward as the 
spot where the ship had anchored, when she was first 
brought up by artificial means into those waters. 

Betts went off to meet the governor, in order to make 
an early report of his proceedings. It was apparent that 
I the danger was over, and Woolston was not sorry to find 
that success was obtained without recourse to his batteries. 
The ship went immediately alongside of the natural quay,' 
and her people poured ashore, in a crowd, the instant a 
plank could be run out, in order to enable them to do so. 
In an hour the cows were landed, and were grazing in the 
crater, where the grass was knee-high, and everything pos- 
sessing life was out of the ship, the rats and cockroaches 


332 


THE CRATER. 


perhaps excepted. As for the enemy, no one now cared ! 
for them. The man aloft said they could be seen, pad- . 
dling away as if for life, and already too far for pursuit. 
It would have been easy enough for the vessels to cut ofi j 
the fugitives by going into the offing again, but this was | 
not the desire of any there, all being too happy to be rid | 
of them, to take any step to prolong the intercourse. | 

Great was the delight of the colonists to be once more j 
on the land. Under ordinary circumstances, the immi- j 
grants might not have seen so many charms in the Reef 
and crater and hog lot ; but five months at sea have a 
powerful influence in rendering the most barren spot beau-^ 
tiful. Barrenness, however, was a reproach that could no!^ 
longer be justly applied to the group, and most especially! 
to those portions of it which had received the attention of 
its people. Even trees were beginning to be numerous, 
thousands of them having been planted, some for their 
fruits, some for their wood, and others merely for the 
shade. Of willows, aloue, Socrates with his own hand had 
set out more than five thousand, the operation being simply 
that of thrusting the end of a branch into the mud. Of 
the rapidity of the growth, it is scarcely necessary to speak ; 
though it quadrupled that known even to the most fertile 
regions of America. 

Here, then, was Mark once more at home, after so long 
a passage. There was his ship, too, well freighted with a 
hundred things, all of which would contribute to the com- 
fort and wp.ll-bp.inor of thp p.olonist.s I Tf was a momAnt i 



Bridget was not forgotten, however, for in less than half 
an hour after the ship was secured, Betts sailed in the Ne- 
shamony, for the Peak he was to carry over the joyful 
tidings, and to Tnng the “governor’s lady” to the Reef. 
Ere the sun set, or about that time, his return migh^ be 
expected, the Neshamony making the trip in much less 
time than one of the smaller boats. It was not necessary, 
however, for Betts to go so far, for when he had fairly 


THE CRATER. 


883 


cleared Cape South, and was in the strait, he fell in with 
the Abraham, bound over to the Reef. It appeared that 
some signs of the hostile canoes had been seen from the 
Peak, as Waally was crossing from Rancocus Island, and, 
after a council, it had been decided to send the Abraham 
I across, to notify the peojDle on the Reef of the impending 
danger, -and to aid in repelling the enemy. Bridget and 
I Martha had both come in the schooner ; the first, to look 
after the many valuables she had left at the “ governor’s 
house,” on the Summit, and the last, as her companion. 

We leave tht eader to imagine the joy that was exhib- 
ited, when those on board the Abraham ascertained the ar- 
rival of the Rancocus ! Bridget was in ecstasies, and 
greatly did she exult in her own determination to cross on 
this occasion, and to bring h er child with her. After the 
first burst of happiness, and the necessary explanations had 
; been made, a consultation was had touching what was next 
I to be done. Brown was in command of the Abraham, 
with a sufficient crew, and Betts sent him to windward, 
outside of everything, to look after the enemy. It was 
thought desirable not only to see Waally well clear of the 
group, but to force him to pass off to the northward, in or- 
der that he might not again approach the Reef, as well as 
to give liim so much amioyance on his retreat, as to sicken 
I him of these expeditions for the future. For such a ser- 
vice the schooner was much the handiest of all the vessels 
of the colonists, since she might be worked by a couple of 
hands, and her armament was quite sufficient for all that 
was required of her, on the occasion. Brown was every 
way competent to command, as Betts well knew, and he 
received the females on board the Neshamony, and put 
about, leaving the schooner to turn to windward. 

Bridget reached the Reef before it was noon. All the 
proceedings of that day had commenced so early, that there 
had been time for this. The governor saw the Neshamony, 
as she approached, and great uneasiness beset him. He 
knew she had not been as far as the Peak, and supposed 
that Waally’s fleet had intercepted her, Betts coming back 
for reinforcements. But, as the boat drew near, the flutter- 


334 


THE CRATER. 


ing of female dresses was seen, and then his unerring glass ! 
let him get a distant view of the sweet face of his young ] 
wife. From thai moment the governor was incapable of 
giving a coherent or useful order, until Bridget had ar- 
rived. Vessels that came in from the southward were 
obliged to pass through the narrow entrance, between the 
reef and the hog lot, where was the draw-bridge so often 
mentioned.KThere was water enough to float a frigate, and 
it was possible to take a frigate through, the-width being 
about fifty feet, though as yet nothing larger than the. 
Friend Abraham White had made the trial. At this point, | 
then, Woolston took his station, waiting the arrival of the| 
Neshamony, with an impatience he was a little ashamed of J 
exhibiting. .■ 

Betts saw the governor, in good time, and pointed hini|| 
out to Bridget, who could hardly be kept on board the* 
boat, so slow did the progress of the craft now seem. But . 
the tender love which this young couple bore each other j 
was soon to be rewarded ; for Mark sprang on board the 
Neshamony as she went through the narrow pass, and im- 
mediately he had Bridget folded to his heart. 

Foreigners are apt to say that we children of this west-| 
ern world do not submit to the tender emotions with the^ 
same self-abandonment as those'who are born nearer to the’; 
rising sun ; that our hearts are as cold and selfish as oui^ 
manners ; and that we live more for the lower and grovel-; 
ing passions, than for sentiment and the affections. Most 
sincerely do we wish that every charge which European 
jealousy, and European superciliousness, have brought 
against the American character, was as false as this. 
That the people of this country are more restrained in the 
exhibition of all their emotions, than those across the great 
waters, we believe ; but, that the last feel the most, wo 
shall be very unwilling to allow. Most of all shall w'e 
deny that the female form contains hearts more true to all 
its affections, spirits more devoted to the interests of its 
earthly head, or an identity of existence more perfect than 
those with which the American wife clings to her husband. 
She is literally “ bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh.’' 


THE CRATER. 


335 


It is seldom that her wishes cross the limits of the domestic 
circle which to her is earth itself, and all that it contains 
which is most desirable. Her husband and children com- 
pose her little world, and beyond them and their sympa- 
thies, it is rare indeed that her truant affections ever wish 
to stray. A part of this concentration of the American 
wife’s existence in these domestic interests, is doubtless ow- 
ing to the simplicity of American life and the absence of 
temptation. Still, so devoted is the female heart, so true 
to its impulses, and so little apt to wander from home-feel- 
ings and home-duties, that the imputation to which there is 
allusion, is just that, of all others, to which the wives of the 
republic ought not to be subject. 

It was even-tide before the governor was again seen 
among his people. By this time, the immigrants had taken 
their first survey of the Reef, and the nearest islands, which 
the least sanguine of their numbers admitted quite equaled 
the statements they had originally heard of the advantages 
of the place. It was, perhaps, fortunate that the fruits of 
the tropics were so abundant with Socrates and his com- 
panions. By this time, oranges abounded, more than a 
thousand trees having, from time to time, been planted in 
and around the crater, alone. Groves of them were also 
appearing in favorable spots, on the adjacent islands. It - 
is true, these trees were yet too young to produce very 
bountifully; but they had begun to bear, and it was thought 
a very delightful thing, among the fresh arrivals from 
Pennsylvania, to be able to walk in an orange grove, and 
to pluck the fruit at pleasure ! 

As for figs, melons, limes, shaddocks, and even cocoa- 
nuts, all were now to be had, and in quantities quite suffi- 
cient for the population. In time, the colonists craved the 
apples of their own latitude, and the peach ; those two 
fruits, so abundant and so delicious in their ancient homes ; 
but the novelty was still on them, and it required time to 
1 learn the fact that we tire less of the apple, and the peach, 
and the potato, than of any other of the rarest gifts of 
nature. That which the potato has become among vege- 
tables, is the apple among fruits ; and when we rise into 


335 


THE CRATER. 


the more .uscious and temporary of the bountiful products J 
of horticulture, the peach (in its perfection) occupies a I 
place altogether apart, having no rival in the exquisite fla-* 
vor, while it never produces satiety. The peach and the ^ 
grape are the two most precious of the gifts of Providence, j] 
in the way of fruits. | 

That night, most of the immigrants slept in the ship ; i: 
nearly all of them, however, for the last time. About ten i 


in the forenoon. Brown came running down to the Reef, 


through the eastern passage, to report Waally well off, hav- ^ 
ing quitted the group to windward, and made the best of ' 
his way towards his own islands, without turning aside to 
make a starting-point of Rancocus. It was a good deal 
questioned whether the chief would find his proper domin- 
ions, after a run of four hundred miles ; for a very trifling 
deviation from the true course of starting, would be very; 
apt to bring him out wide of his goal. This was a matter, 
however, that gave the colonists very little concern. The 
greater the embarrassments encountered by their enemies, 
the less likely would they be to repeat the visit ; and should 
a few perish, it might be all the better for themselves. 
The governor greatly approved of Brown’s course in not' 
following the canoes, since the repulse was sufficient as it 
was, and there was very little probability that the colony 
would meet with any further difficulty from this quarter; 
now that it had got to be so strong. ' 

That day and the next, the immigrants were busy in 
landing their effects, which consisted of furniture, tools, and 
stores of one sort and another. As the governor intend 
to send, at once, forty select families over to the Peak, the 
Abraham was brought alongside of the quay, and the prop- 
erty of those particular families was, as it came ashore 
sent on board the schooner. Males and females were all 
employed in this duty, the Reef resembling a bee-hive just^ 
at that point. Bill Brown, who still commanded the Abra- 
ham, was of course present ; and he made an occasion to 
get in company with the governor, with whom he held the 
following short dialogue : — 

“ A famous ship’s company is this, sir, you’ve landed , 


THE CRATER. 


some on ’em is what I calls of the right 


smiling. 


among us, and 
sort ! ” 

“ I understand you, Bill,” answered Mark, 

“ Your commission has been duly executed; and Phccbe is 
here, ready to be spliced as soon as there shall be an 
opportunity.” 

“ That is easily enough made, when peoples’ so inclined,” 


so 

me. 


good 

I 


might be 


as just 
begin- 


said Bill, fidgeting. “ If you’d be 
to point out the young woman to 
ning to like her, in the meanwhile.” 

“ Young ? Nothing was said about that in the order-. Bill. 
You wished a wife, invoiced and consigned to yourself; 
and one has been shipped, accordingly. You must consider 
the state of the market, and remember that the article is in 
demand precisely as it is youthful.” 

“ Well, well, sir. I’ll not throw her on your hands, if 


she’s old enough to be my mother ; 


though 


I do rather 


suppose, Mr. Woolston, you stood by an old shipmate in a 


foreign land, and that there is a companion suitable for a 


fellow of only two-and-thirty sent out ? ” 

“ Of that you shall judge for yourself. Bill. Here she 
comes, carrying a looking-glass, as if it were to look at her 
own pretty face ; and if she prove to be only as good as 
she is good-looking, you will have every reason to be satis- 
fied. What is more. Bill, your wife does not come empty- 
handed, having a great many articles that will help to set 
you up comfortably in housekeeping.” 

Brown was highly pleased with the governor’s choice, 
which had been made with a due regard to the interests 
and tastes of the absent shipmate. Phoebe appeared well 
satisfied with her allotted husband ; and that very day the 
couple was united in the cabin of the Abraham. On tlie^-^ 
same occasion, the ceremony was performed for Unus^fend 
Juno, as well as for Peters and his Indian wife ; the gov- 
ernor considering it proper tha*t regard to appearances and 
all decent observances, should be paid, as comported with 
their situation. 

About sunset of the third day after the arrival of the 
Rancocus, the Abraham sailed for the Peak, having on 




5 




I 


22 


338 


THE CRATER. 


board somewhat less than a hundred of the immigrants, n* 
eluding females and children. The Neshamony preceded 
her several hours, taking across the governor and his fam* 
ily. Mark longed to see his sister Anne, and his two 
brothers participated in this wish, if possible, in a still more 
lively manner. 

The meeting of these members of the same family was 
of the most touching character. The young men found 
their sister much better established than they had antici- 
pated, and in the enjoyment of very many more comforts 
than they had supposed it was in the power of any one 
to possess in a colony still so young. Heaton had erected 
a habitation for himself, in a charming grove, where there 
were water, fruits, and other conveniences, near at hand, 
and where his own family was separated from the rest of 
the community. This distinction had been conferred on 
him, by common consent, in virtue of his near affinity to 
the governor, whose substitute he then was, and out of re- 
spect to his education and original rank in life. Seamen 
are accustomed to defer to station and authority, and are 
all the happier for the same ; and the thought of any jeal- 
ousy on account of this privilege, which as yet was con- 
fined to Mark and Heaton, and their respective families, 
had not yet crossed the mind of any one on the island. 

About twelve, or at midnight, the Abraham entered the 
cove. Late as was the hour, each immigrant assumed a 
load suited to his or her strength, and ascended the Stairs 
favored by the sweet light of a full moon. That night most 
of the new-comers passed in the groves, under tents or in 
an arbor that had been prepared for them ; and sweet was 
the repose that attended happiness and security, in a cli- 
mate so agreeable. 

Next morning, when the immigrants came out of their 
temporary dwellings, and looked upon the fair scene before 
them, they could scarcely believe in its reality ! It is true 
nothing remarkable or unexpected met their eyes in the 
shape of artificial accessories ; but the bountiful gifts of 
Providence, and the natural beauties of the spot, as much 
exceeded their anticipations as it did their power of imag- 


THE CRATER. 


339 


iniiig such glories ! The admixture of softness and mag- 
nificence made a whole that they had never before beheld 
in any other portion of the globe ; and there was not one 
among them all that did not, for the moment, feel and 
speak as if he or she had been suddenly transformed to an 
earthly paradise. 


I 


340 


THE CRATER. 


You have said they are men ; 

As such their hearts are something. 


CHAPTER XXIL 


Byron. 



The colony had now reached a point when it became 
necessary to proceed with method and caution. Certain 
great principles were to be established, on which the gov- 
ernor had long r?flected, and he was fully prepared to set 
them up, and to defend them, though he knew that ideas 
prevailed among a few of his people, which might dispose ^ 
them to cavil at his notions, if not absolutely to 02)pose 
him. Men are fond of change ; half the time, for a r^a-, 
son no better than that it is change ; and, not unfrequently, 
they permit this wayward feeling to unsettle interests that 
are of the last importance to them, and which find no 
small part of their virtue in their permanency. 

Hitherto, with such slight exceptions as existed in def- 
erence to the station, not to say rights of the governor, 
everything of an agricultural character had been possessed ^ 
in common among the colonists. But this was a state of 
things which the good sense of Mark told him could not, 
and ought not to last. The theories which have come 
into fashion in our own times, concerning the virtues of 
association, were then little known and less credited. So- 
ciety, as it exists in a legal form, is association enough for 
all useful purposes, and sometimes too much ; and the gov- ^ 
ernor saw no use in forming a wheel within a wheel. If 
men have occasion for each other’s assistance to effect a 
particular object, let them unite, in welcome, for that pur- 
pose ; but Mark was fully determined that there should be 
but one government in his land, and that this government 
should be of a character to encourage and not to depress 
exertion. So long as a man toiled for himself and those 


THE CRATER. 


841 


nearest and dearest to him, society had a security for his 
doing much, that would be wanting where the proceeds of 
the entire community were to be shared in common ; and, 
on the knowledge of this simple and obvious truth, did 
I our young legislator found his theory of government. 

1 Protect all in their rights equally, but, that done, let every 
man pursue his road to happiness in his own way ; conced- 
■ ing no more of his natural rights than were necessary to the 
I great ends of peace, security, and law. Such was Mark’s 
‘ theory. As for the modern crotchet that men yielded no 
natural right to government, but were to receive all and 
return nothing, the governor, in plain language, was not 
fool enough to believe it. He was perfectly aware that 
i when a man gives authority to society to compel him to 
I attend court as a witness, for instance, he yields just so 
much of his natural rights to society as might be neces- 
sary to empower him to stay away if he saw fit ; and, so 
on, tlirough the whole of the very long catalogue of the 
claims which the most indulgent communities make upon 
the services of their citizens. Mark understood the great 
desideratum to be, not the setting up of theories to which 
every attendant fact gives the lie, but the ascertaining, as 
near as human infirmity will allow, the precise point at 
which concession to government ought to terminate, and 
that of uncontrolled individual freedom commence. He 
was not visionary enough to suppose that he was to be the 
first to make this great discovery : but he was conscious of 
entering on the task with the purest intentions. Our gov- 
ernor had no relish for power for power’s sake, but only 
wielded it for the general good. By nature, he was more 
disposed to seek happiness in a very small circle, and 
would have been just as well satisfied to let another gov- 
I ern, as to rule himself, had there been another suited to 
such a station. But there was not. His own early habits 
of command, the peculiar circumstances which had first 
put him in possession of the territory, as if it were a 
special gift of Providence to himself, his past agency in 
bringing about the actual state of things, and his property, 
which amounted to more than that of all the rest of the 


342 


THE CRATER. 


colony put together, contributed to give him a title and 
authority to rule, which would have set the claims of any 
rival at defiance, had such a person existed. But there 
was no rival ; not a being present desiring to see another 
in his place. 

The first step of the governor was to appoint his 
brother, Abraham Woolston, the secretary of the colony. 
In that age America had very different notions of office, 
and of its dignity, of the respect due to authority, and 
of the men who wielded it, from what prevail at the pres- 
ent time. The colonists, coming as they did from Amer- 
ica, brought with them the notions of the times, and 
treated their superiors accordingly. In the last century a 
governor was “ the governor,” and not “ our governor,” and 
a secretary “ the secretary,” and not “ our secretary,” men 
now taking more liberties with what they fancy their own, 
than was their wont with what they believed had been set 
over them for their good. Mr. Secretary Woolston soon 
became a personage, accordingly, as did all the other con- 
siderable functionaries appointed by the governor. 

The very first act of Abraham Woolston, on being 
sworn into office, was to make a registry of the entire 
population. We shall give a synopsis of it, in order that 
the reader may understand the character of the materials 
with which the governor had room to work, namely : — 


Males 147 Females 158 

A.dulte 113 Adults 121 

Children 34 Children 37 

Married 101 Married 101 

Widowers 1 Widows 4 

Seamen 38 Lawyer 1 

Mechanics 26 Clergyman 1 

Physician 1 Population 305 


Student in Medicine ... 1 

Here, then, was a community composed already of three 
hundred and five souls. The governor’s policy was not to 
increase this number by further immigration, unless in 
special cases, and then only after due deliberation and in- 
quiry. Great care had been taken with the characters of 
the presejit settlers, and careless infusions of new mem- 


THE CRATER. 


343 


bers might undo a great deal of good that had already 
been done. This matter was early laid before the new 
council, and the opinions of the governor met with a unan 
imous concurrence. 

On the subject of the council, it may be well to say a 
word. It was increased to nine, and a new election was 
made, the incumbents holding their offices for life. This 
last provision was made to prevent the worst part, and the 
most corrupting influence of politics, namely, the elections, 
from getting too much sway over the public mind. The 
new council was composed as follows, namely, — 

Messrs. Heaton, 

Pennock, ' f 

Betts, 

C. Woolston, » >1.1. 

A. Woolston, } “ brothers. 

Charlton, 

Saunders, 

Wilmot, and 
Warrington. 

These names belonged to the most intelligent men of 
the colony, Betts perhaps excepted; but his -claims were 
too obvious to be slighted. Betts had good sense more- 
over, and a great deal of modesty. All the rest of the 
council had more or less claims to be gentlemen, but Bob 
never pretended to that character. He knew his own 
qualifications, and did not render himself ridiculous by 
j aspiring to be more than he really was ; still, his practical 
i knowledge made him a very useful member of the council, 
I where his opinions were always heard with attention and 
i respect. Charlton and Wilmot were merchants, and in- 
tended to embark regularly in trade ; while Warrington, 
who possessed more fortune than any of the other colonists, 
unless it might be the governor, called himself a farmer, 
though he had a respectable amount of general science, 
and was well read in the most liberal studies. 

! Warrington was made judge, with a small salary, all of 
which he gave to the clergyman, the Rev. Mr. White. 
This was done because he had no need of the money him- 
self, and there was no other provision for the parson than 


344 


THE CRATER. 


free contributions. John Wools ton, who had read law, was 
named attorney-general, or colony’s attorney, as the office 
was more modestly styled ; to which duties he added 
those of surveyor-general. Charles received his salary, 
which was two hundred and fifty dollars, being in need of 
it. The question of salary, as respects the governor, was 
also settled. Mark had no occasion for the money, own- 
ing all the vessels, with most of the cargo of the Ranco- 
CHS, as well as having brought out with him no less a sum 
than five thousand dollars, principally in change — halves, 
quarters, shillings, and sixpences. Then a question might 
well arise, whether he did or not own most of the stock ; 
a large part of it was his bejmnd all dispute, though some 
doubts might exist as to the remainder. On this subject 
the governor came to a most wise decision, lie was fully 
aware that nothing was more demoralizing to a people 
than to suffer them to get loose notions on the subject of 
property. Property of all kinds, he early determined, 
should be most rigidly respected, and a decision that he 
made shortly after his return from America, while acting 
in his capacity of chief magistrate, and before the new 
court went into regular operation, was of a character to 
show how he regarded this matter. The case was as fol- 
lows : — 

Two of the colonists, Warner and Harris, had bad blood 
between them. Warner had placed his family in an ar- 
bor within a grove, and to “ aggravate ” him, Harris came 
and walked before his door, strutting up and down like a 
turkey-cock, and in a way to show that it was intended to 
annoy Warner. The last brought his complaint before 
the governor. On the part of Harris, it was contended 
til at no injury had been done the property of Harris, and 
that, consequently, no damages could be claimed. The 
question of title was conceded, ex necessitate rerum. Gov- 
ernor Woolston decided, that a man’s rights in his property 
were not to be limited by positive injuries to its market 
value. Although no grass or vegetables had ’neen destroyed 
by Harris in his walks, he had molested Warner in such an 
enjoyment of his dwelling, as, in intendment of law, every 


THE CRATER. 


345 


citizeK was entitled to in his possessions. The trespass 
was an aggravated one, and damages were given accord- 
ingly. In delivering his judgment, the governor took oc- 
casion to state, that in the administration of the law, the 
rights of every man would be protected in the fullest ex- 
tent, not only as connected with pecuniary considerations, 
but as connected with all those moral uses and feelings 
which contribute to human happiness. This decision met 
with applause, and was undoubtedly right in itself. It 
was approved, because the well-intentioned colonists had 
not learned to confound liberty with licentiousness ; but 
understood the former to be the protection of the citizen 
in the enjoyment of all his innocent tastes, enjoyments, and 
l^ersonal rights, after making such concessions to govern^ 
merit as are necessary to its maintenance. Thrice happy 
would it be for all lands, whether they are termed des- 
potisms or democracies, could they thoroughly feel the 
justice of this definition, and carry out its intention in 
practice. 

The council was convened the day succeeding its elec- 
tion. After a few preliminary matters were disposed of, 
the great question was laid before it, of a division of prop- 
erty, and the grant of real estate. Warrington and Charier 
Woolston laid down the theory, that the fee of all the land 
was, by gift, of Providence, in the governor, and that his 
patent, or sign-manual, was necessary for passing the title 
into other hands. This theory had an affinity to that of 
the Common Law, which made the prince the suzerain, and 
rendered him the heir of all escheated estates. But Mark’s 
humility, not to say his justice, met this doctrine on the 
threshold. He admitted the sovereignty and its right, but 
placed it in the body of the colony, instead of in himself. 
As the party most interested took this view of the case, 
they who were disposed to regard his rights as more 
sweeping, were fain to submit. The land was therefore 
declared to be the property of the state. Ample grants, 
however, were made both to the governor and Betts, as 
original possessors, or discoverers, and it was held in law 
that their claims were thus compromised. The grants to 


346 


THE CRATER. 


Governor Woolston included quite a thousand acres on the , 
Peak, which was computed to contain near thirty thousand, 
and an island of about the same extent in the group, which 
was beautifully situated near its centre, and less than a 
league from the crater. Betts had one hundred acres 
granted to him, near the crater also. He refused any other 
grant, as a right growing out of original possession. Nor 
was his reasoning bad on the occasion. AVhen he was 
driven off, in the Neshamony, the Reef, Loam Island, 
Guano Island, and twenty or thirty rocks, ^composed all the 
dry land. He had never seen the Peak until Mark was in 
possession of it, and had no particular claim there. When 
the council came to make its general grants, he was will 
ing to come in for his proper share with the rest of the ✓ 
people, and he wanted no more. Heaton had a special 
grant of two hundred acres made to him on the Peak, and 
another in the group of equal extent, as a reward for his 
early and important services. Patents were made out, at 
once, of these several grants, under the great seal of the 
colony ; for the governor had provided parchment, and 
wax, and a common seal, in anticipation of their being all 
wanted. The rest of the grants of land were made on a 
general' principle, giving fifty acres on the Peak, and one 
hundred in the group, to each male citizen of the age of 
twenty-one years; those who had not yet attained their 
majority being compelled to wait. A survey was made, 
and the different lots were numbered, and registered by 
those numbers. Then a lottery was made, each man’s 
name being put in one box, and the necessary numbers in 
another. The number drawn against any particular name 
was the lot of the person in question. A registration ol 
the drawing was taken, and printed patents were made 
out, signed, sealed, and issued to the respective parties. 
We say printed, a press and types having been broughw 
over in the Rancocus, as well as a printer. In this way, ; 
then, every male of full age, was put in possession of one ' 
hundred and fifty acres of land, in fee. 

As the lottery did not regard the wishes of parties, 
many private bargains were made, previously to the issuing 


THE CRATER. 


347 


of th3 patents, in >r(ler that friends and connections might 
be placed near to each other. Some sold their rights, ex- 
changing with a difference, while others sold altogether on 
the Peak, or in the group, willing to confine their posses- 
sions to one or the other of these places. In this manner 
Mr. AVarrington, or Judge Warrington, as he was now 
called, bought three fifty-acre lots adjoining his own share 
on the Peak, and sold his hundred-acre lot in the group. 

The price established by these original sales, would seem 
to give a value of ten dollars an acre to land on the Peak, 
and of three dollars an acre to land in the group. Some 
lots, however, had a higher value than others, all these 
things being left to be determined by the estimate which 
the colonists placed on -their respective valuations. As 
everything was conducted on a general and understood 
principle, and the drawing was made fairly and in public, 
there was no discontent ; though some of the lots were 
certainly a good deal preferable to others. The greatest 
difference in value existed in the lots in the group, where 
soil and water were often wanted ; though, on the whole, 
much more of both was found than had been at first ex- 
pected. There were vast deposits of mud, and others of 
sand, and Heaton early suggested the expediency of mix- 
ing the two together, by way of producing fertility. An 
experiment of this nature had been tried, under his orders, 
during the absence of the governor, and the result was of 
the most satisfactory nature ; the acre thus manured pro- 
ducing abundantly. 

As it was the sand that was to be conveyed to the mud, 
the toil was much less than might have been imagined. 
This sand usually lay near the water, and the numberless 
channels admitted of its being transported in boats along 
a vast reach of shore. Each lot having a water front, 
every man might manure a few acres, by this process, 
without any great expense ; and no sooner were the rights 
determined, and the decisions of the parties made as to 
their final settlements, than many went to work to render 
the cracked and baked mud left by the retiring ocean fer- 
tile and profitable. Lighters were constructed for the 


348 


THE CRATER. 


purpose, and the colonists formed themselves into gangs, 
laboring in common, and transporting- so many loads of 
sand to each levee, as the banks were called, though not 
raised as on the Mississippi, and distributing it bountifully 
over the surface. The spade was employed to mix the two 
earths together. 

IMost of the allotments of land, in the group, were in the 
immediate neighborhood of the Reef. As there were 
quite a hundred of them, more than ten thousand acres 
of the islands were thus taken up, at the start. By a 
rough calculation, however, the group extended east and 
v/est sixty-three miles, and north and south about fifty, — ■ 
the Reef being a very little west and a very little south of 
its centre. Of this surface it was thought something like 
three-fourths was dry land, or naked rock. This would 
give rather more than a million and a half of acres of land ; 
but, of this great extent of territory, not more than two- 
thirds could be rendered available for the purposes of hus- 
bandry, for want of soil, or the elements of soil. There 
were places where the deposit of mud seemed to be of vast 
depth, while in others it did not exceed a few inches. The 
same was true of the sands, though the last was rarely of 
as great depth as the mud, or alluvium. 

A month was consumed in making the allotments, and 
in putting the different proprietors in possession of their 
respective estates. Then, indeed, were the results of the 
property-system made directly apparent. No sooner was 
an individual put in possession of his deed, and told that 
the lot it represented was absolutely his own, to do what 
he pleased with it than he went to work with energy and 
filled with hopes, to turn his new domains to account. It 
is true that education and intelligence, if they will only 
acquit themselves of their tasks with disinterested probity, 
may enlighten and instruct the ignorant how to turn their 
means to account; but all experience proves that each in- 
dividual usually takes the best care of his own interests, 
and that the system is wisest which grants to him the am- 



To work all went, ther men forming themselves into 


THE CRATER. 


349 


gangs, and aiding each other. The want of horses and 
neat cattle was much felt, more especially as Heaton’s ex- 
perience set every one at the sand, as. the first step in a 
profitable husbandry : wheelbarrows, however, were made 
use of instead of carts, and it was found that a dozen pair 
of hands could do a good deal with that utensil, in the 
course of a day. All sorts of contrivances were resorted 
to in order to transport the sand, but the governor estab- 
lished a regular system, by which the lighter should de- 
liver one loud at each farm, in succession. By the end of 
a month it was found that a good deal had been done, the 
distances being short and the other facilities constantly in- 
creasing by the accession of new boats. 

All sorts of habitations were invented. The scarcity 
of wood in the group was a serious evil, and it was found 
indispensable to import that material. Parts of Rancocus 
Island were well wooded, there growing among other 
trees a quantity oi noble yellow pines. Bigelow was sent 
across in the Abraham to set up a mill, and to cut lum- 
ber. There being plenty of water-power, the mill was 
soon got at work, and a lot of excellent plank, boards, 
etc., was shipped in the schooner for the crater. Shingle- 
makers were also employed, the cedar abounding, as well 
as the pine. The transportation to the coast was the 
point of difficulty on Rancocus Island as well as else- 
where ; none of the cattle being yet old enough to be 
used. Socrates had three pair of yearling steers, and one 
of two years old breaking, but it was too soon to set either 
at work. With the last, a little very light labor was done, 
but it was more to train the animals, than with any other 
object. 

On Rancocus Island, however, Bigelow had made a 
very ingenious canal, that was of vast service in floating 
logs to the mill. The dam made a long narrow pond 
ihat penetrated two or three miles up a gorge in the mount- 
ains, and into this dam the logs were rolling down the 
acclivities, which were steep enough to carry anything into 
the water. When cut into lumber, it was found that the 
stream below the mill would carry small rafts down to the 


sea. 


350 


THE CRATER. 


While all these projects were in the course of operation,^ 
the governor did not forget the high interest connecte<l j 
with his foreign relations ; Waally was to be looked to 
and Ooroony’s son to be righted. The council was unan- j 
imously of opinion that sound policy required such an i 
exhibition of force on the part of the colony, as should | 
make a lasting impression on their turbulent neighbors. 
An expedition was accordingly fitted out, in which the 
Mermaid, the Abraham, and a new pilot-boat built schooner 
of fifty tons burden, were employed. This new schooner 
was nearly ready for launching when the Rancocus re- 
turned, and was put into the water for the occasion. 
She had been laid down in the cove, where Bigelow had 
found room for a sufficient yard, and where timber was 
nearer at hand, than on the Reef. As Rancocus Island 
supplied the most accessible and the best lumber, the 
council had determined to make a permanent establish- 
ment on it, for the double purposes of occupation and 
building vessels. As the resources of that island were 
developed, it was found important on other accounts, 
also. Excellent clay for bricks was found, as was lime- 
stone, in endless quantities. For the purposes of agricul- 
ture, the place was nearly useless, there not being one 
thousand acres of good arable land in the whole island; 
but the mountains were perfect mines of treasure in the 
way of necessary supplies of the sorts mentioned. 

A brick-yard was immediately cleared and formed, and 
a lime-kiln constructed. Among the colonists, it was easy 
to find men accustomed to work in all these familiar 
branches. The American can usually turn his hand to a 
dozen different pursuits ; and, though he may not abso- 
lutely reach perfection in either, he is commonly found 
useful and reasonably expert in all. Before the governor 
sailed on his expedition against Waally, a brick-kiln and a 
lime-kiln were nearly built, and a vast quantity of lumber 
had been carried over to the Reef. As sandal-wood had 
been collecting for the twelve months of her late absence, 
the Rancocus. had also been filled up, and had taken in a 
i^w cargo for Canton. It was not the intention of the 


THE CRATER. 


351 


governor to command his ship this voyage ; but he gave 
her to Saunders, who was every way competent to tlie 
trust. When all was ready, the Rancocus, the Mermaid, 
j the Abraham, and the Anne, as the new pilot-boat schooner 
was called, sailed for Betto’s group ; it being a part of 
the governor’s plan to use the ship, in passing, with a view 
to intimidate his enemies. In consequence of the revolu- 
tion that had put Waally up again, every one of the Kan- 
nakas who had gone out in the Rancocus on her last 
voyage, refused to go home, knowing that they would at 
once be impressed into Waally ’s service ; and they all now 
I cheerfully shipped anew, for a second voyage to foreign 
i lands. By this time, these men were very useful ; and 
the governor had a project for bringing up a number of 
the lads of the islands, and of making use of them in the 
public service. This scheme was connected with his con- 
templated success, and formed no small part of the policy 
of the day. 

The appearance of so formidable a force as was now 
brought against Waally, reduced that turbulent chief to 
terms without a battle. About twenty of his canoes had 
got separated from the rest of the fleet in a squall, while 
' returning from the unsuccessful attempt of the Reef, and 
they were never heard of more ; or, if heard of, it was in 
uncertain rumors, which gave an account of the arrival 
of three or four canoes at some islands a long way to lee- 
ward, with a handful of half-starved warriors on board. 
It is supposed that all the rest perished at sea. This dis- 
aster had rendered Waally unpopular among the friends 
of those who were lost ; and that unpopularity was height- 
ened by the want of success in the expedition itself. 
Success is all in all, with the common mind ; and we daily 
see the vulgar shouting at the heels of those whom they 
are ready to crucify at the first turn of fortune. In this 
good land of ours, popularity adds to its more worthless 
properties the substantial result of power ; and it is not 
surprising that so many forget their God in the endeavor 
to court the people. In time, however, all of these per- 


352 


THE CRATER. 


eons of mistaken ambition come to exclaim, with Shakes* i 
peare’s Wolsey — I 

“ Had I but served iny God with half the zeal 
I served my king, he would not in mine age 
Have left me naked to mine enemies.” 

Waally’s power, already tottering through the influence 
of evil fortune, crumbled entirely before the force Gov- 
ernor Woolston now brought against it. Although the 
latter had but forty whites with him, they came in ships, 
and provided with cannon ; and not a chief dreamed of 
standing by the offender, in this his hour of need. Waally 
had the tact to comprehend his situation, and the wisdom 
to submit to his fortune. lie sent a messenger to the 
governor with a palm-branch, offering to restore young 
Ooroony to all his father’s authority, and to confine him- 
self to his strictly inherited dominions. Such, in fact, was 
the basis of the treaty that was now made, though hostages 
were taken for its fulfilment. To each condition Waally 
consented ; and everything was settled to the entire satisfac- 
tion of the whites, and to the honor and credit of young 
Ooroony. The result was, in substance, as we shall now 
record. 

In the first place, one hundred lads were selected and 
handed over to the governor, as so many apprentices to the 
sea. These young Kannakas were so many hostages for the j 
good behavior of their parents ; while the parents, always ' 
within reach of the power of the colonists, were so many 
hostages for the good behavior of the Kannakas. Touch- 
ing tlie last, however, the governor had very few misgiv- 
ings, since he believed it very possible so to treat, and so 
to train them, as to make them fast friends. In placing 
them on board the different vessels, therefore, rigid instruc- 
tions were given to their officers to be kind to these young- 
sters ; and each and all were to be taught to read, and 
instructed in the Christian religion. The Rev. Mr. Horn- 
blower took great interest in this last arrangement, as did 
half the females of the colony. Justice and kind treat- 
ment, in fact produced their usual results in the cases of 
these hundred youths ; every one of whom got to be, in 


THE CRATER. 


358 


the end, far more attached to the Reef, and its customs, 
than to their own islands and their original habits. The 
sea, no doubt, contributed its share to this process of civil- 
ization ; for it is ever found that the man who gets a thor- 
ough taste for that element, is loth to quit it again for 
terra jirma. 

One hundred able-bodied men were added to the recruits 
that the governor obtained in Betto’s group. They were 
taken as hired laborers, and not as hostages. Beads and 
old iron were to be their pay, with fish-hooks, and such 
other trifles as had a value in their eyes : and their engage- 
ment was limited to two months. There was a disposition 
among a few of the colonists to make slaves of these men, 
and to work their lauds by means of a physical force ob- 
tained in Betto’s group ; but to thia scheme the council 
would not lend itself for a moment.y The governor well 
knew that the usefulness, virtue, and moral condition of 
his people, depended on their being employed, and he had 
no wish to undermine the permanent prosperity of the 
colony, by resorting to an expedient that might do well 
enough for a short time, but which would certainly bring 
its own puishment in the end. 

Still, an accession of physical force, properly directed, 
would be of great use in this early age of the colony. The 
laborers were accordingly engaged ; but this was done by 
the government, which not only took the control of the 
men, but which also engaged to see them paid the promised 
renumeration. Another good was also anticipated from 
this arrangement. The two groups must exist as friends 
or as enemies. So long as young Ooroony reigned, it was 
thouofht there would be little difiicultv in maintaining ami- 
cable relations ; and it was hoped that the intercourse cre- 
ated by this arrangement, aided by the trade in sandal- 
wood, might have the effect to bind the natives to the 
whites by the tie of interest. 

The vessels lay at Betto’s group a fortnight, completing 
all the arrangements made ; though the Rancocus sailed 
on her voyage as soon as the terms of the treaty were 
23 


854 


THE CRATER. 


agreed on, and the Anne was sent back to the Reef with 
the news that the war had terminated. As for Waally, he 
was obliged to place his favorite son in the hands of young 
Ooroony, who held the youthful chief as a hostage for hia 
father’s good behavior. 


i 


THE CRATER. 


35G 


CHAPTER XXIII 


Thou shalt seek the beach of sand 
Where the water bounds the elfin land ; 

Thou shalt watch the oozy brine 

Till the sturgeon leaps in the bright moonshine, 

Then dart the glistening arch below, 

And catch a drop from his silver bow ; 

The water-spirit^ will wield their arms. 

And dash around, with roar and rave, 

And vain are the woodland spirit’s charms. 

They are the imps that rule the wave. 

, Yet trust thee in thy single might ; 

If thy heart be pure, and thy spirit right, 

Thou shalt win the warlike fight. 

Dkake. 

A TWELVE-MONTH passed, after the return of the ex- 
pedition against Betto’s group, without the occurrence of 
any one very marked event. Within that time, Bridget 
made Mark the father of a fine boy, and Anne bore her 
fourth child to Heaton. The propagation of the human 
species indeed flourished marvelously, no less than seventy- 
eight children having been bom in the course of that single 
year. There were a few deaths, only one among the adults, 
the result of an accident, the health of the colony having 
been excellent. An enumeration, made near the close of 
the year, showed a total of three hundred and seventy-nine 
souls, including those absent in the Rancocus, and ex- 
cluding the Kannakas. 

As for these Kannakas; the results of their employment 
quite equaled the governor’s expectations. They would 
not labor like civilized men, it is true, nor was it easy to 
make them use tools ; but at lifts, and drags, and heavy 
work, they could be, and were, made to do a vast deal. 
Tlie first great object of the governor had been to get his 
people all comfortably housed, beneath good roofs, and out 
of the way of the rains. Fortunately there were no de- 


THE CRATER. 


cay ed vegetable substances in the group, to produce fevers, J 
and so long as the person could be kept dry, there was little I 
danger to the health. | 

Four sorts, or classes, of houses were erected, each man 
being left to choose for himself, with the understanding 
that he was to receive a certain amount, in value, from the 
commonwealth, by contribution in labor, or in materials. 
All beyond that amount was to be paid for. To equalize 
advantages, a tariff was established, as to the value of 
labor and materials. These materials consisted of lumber, 
including shingles, stone, lime, and bricks ; bricks burned, 
as well as those which were unburned, or adobe. Nails 
were also delivered from the public store, free of charge. 

Of course no one at first thought of building very 
largely. Small kitchens were all that were got up, at the 
commencement, and they varied in size, according to the 
means of their owners, as much as they differed in mate- 
rials. Some built of wood ; some of stones ; some of regu- 
lar bricks ; and some of adobe. All did very well, but the 
stone was found to be much the preferable material, espe- 
cially where the plastering within was furred off from the 
walls. These stones came from Rancocus Island, where 
they were found in inexhaustible quantities, partaking of j 
the character of tufa. The largest of them were landed 
at the Reef, the loading and unloading being principally 
done by the Kannakas, while the smallest were delivered 
at different points along the channel, according to the 
wishes of the owners of the land. More than a hundred 
dwellings were erected in the course of the few months 
immediately succeeding the arrival of the immigrants. 
About half were on the Peak, and the remainder were in 
\he group. It is true, no one of all these dwellings was large ; 
out each was comfortable, and fully answered the purpose 
of protection against the rain. A roof of cedar shingles i 
was tight, as a matter of course, and what was more, it \ 
was lasting. Some of the buildings were sided with these 
shingles ; though clap-boards were commonly used for that ] 
purpose. The adobe answered very well when securely i 
roofed, though it was thought the uiiburnt brick absorbed J 
more moisture than the brick which had been burned. I 


THE CRATER. 


357 


The largest of all the private dwellings thus erected 
was thirty feet square, and the smallest was fifteen. The 
last had its cooking apartment under a shed, however, de- 
tached from the house. Most of the ovens were thus 
placed ; and in many instances the chimneys stood entirely 
without the buildings, even when they were attached to 
them. There was but one house of two stories, and that 
was John Pennock’s, who had sufficient means to construct 
such a building. As for the governor, he did not com- 
mence building at all, until nearly every one else was 
through, when he laid the corner-stones of two habitations ; 
one oil the Peak, which was his private [iroperty, standing 
on his estate ; and the other on the Reef, which was strictly 
intended to be a Government, or Colony House. The 
first was of brick, and the last of stone, and of great so- 
lidity, being intended as a sort of fortress. The private 
dwelling was only a story and a half high, but large on the 
ground for that region, measuring sixty feet square. The 
government building was much larger, measuring two 
hundred feet in length, by sixty feet in depth. This spa- 
cious edifice, however, was not altogether intended for a 
dwelling for the governor, but was so arranged as to con- 
tain great quantities of public property in its basement, 
and to accommodate the courts, and all the public offices 
on the first floor. It had an upper story, but that was left 
unfinished and untenanted for years, though fitted with 
I arrangements for defense. Fortunately, cellars were little 
j wanted in that climate, for it was not easy to have one in 
the group. It is true, that Pennock caused one to be 
blown out with gunpowder, under his dwelling, though 
every one prophesied that it would soon be full of water. 
It proved to be dry, notwithstanding ; and a very good 
cellar it was, being exceedingly useful against the heats, 
though of cold there was none to guard against. 

The Colony House stood directly opposite to the draw- 
bridge, being placed the^e for the purposes of defense, as 
well as to have access to the spring. A want of water was 
rather an evil on the Reef ; not that the sands did not fur- 
nish an ample supply, and that of the most delicious quality, 


358 


THE CRATER. 


f 

i' 

but it had to be carried to inconvenient' distances. In ; 
general, water was found in sufficient quantities and in, 
suitable places, among the group ; but, at the Reef, there! 
was certainly this difficulty to contend with. As the gov-: 
ernor caused his brother, the surveyor-general, to lay out 
a town on the Reef, it was early deemed necessary to make 
some provision against this evil. A suitable place was 
selected, and a cistern was blown out of the rock, into 
which all the water that fell on the roof of Colony House 
was led. • This reservoir, when full, contained many thou- 
sand gallons ; and when once full, it was found that the 
lains were sufficient to prevent its being very easily 
emptied. 

But the greatest improvement that was made on the 
Reef, after all, was in the way of soil. As for the crater, 
that, by this time, was a mass of verdure, among which 
a thousand trees were not only growing, but flourishing. 
This was as true of its plain, as of its mounds ; and of its 
mounds, as of its plain. But the crater was composed of 
materials very different from the base of the Reef. The 
former was of tufa, so far as it was rock at all ; while the 
latter was, in the main, pure lava. Nevertheless, some-, 
thing like a soil began to form even on the Reef, purely 
by the accessions caused through its use by man. Great, 
attention was paid to collecting everything that could con-|^ 
tribute to the formation of earth, in piles ; and these piles I 
were regularly removed to such cavities, or inequalities in> 
the surface of the rock, as would be most likely to re tain j 
their materials when spread. In this way many greeni 
patches had been formed, and, in a good many instances^! 
trees had been set out, in spots where it was believed they^ 
could find sufficient nourishment. But no sooner had thel 
governor decided to build on the Reef, and to make lii^l 
capital there, than he set about embellishing the place sys-J 
tematically. Whenever a suitable place could be found^' 
in what was intended for Colony House grounds, a space 
of some ten acres in the rear of the building, he put in the 
drill, and blew out rock. The fragments of stone were 
used about the building ; and the place soon presented a 


THE CRATER. 


359 


ragged, broken surface, of vvhich one might well despair 
of making anything. By perseverance, however, and still 
more by skill and judgment, the whole area was lowered 
more than a foot, and in many places, where nature assisted 
the work, it was lowered several feet. It was a disputed 
question, indeed, whether stone for the building could not 
be obtained here, by blasting, cheaper and easier, than by 
transporting it from Rancocus Island. Enough was pro- 
cured in this way not only to construct the building, but 
to inclose the grounds with a sufficient wall. When all 
was got off that was wanted, boat-loads of mud and sand 
were brought by Kannakas, and deposited in the cavity. 
This was a great work for. such a community, though it 
proceeded faster than, at first, one might have supposed. 
The materials were very accessible, and the distances 
short, which greatly facilitated the labor, though unload- 
ing was a task of some gravity. The walls of the house 
were got up in about six months after the work was com- 
menced, and the building was roofed ; but though the 
' gardeners were set to work as soon as the stones were out 
I of the cavities, they had not filled more than two acres at 
the end of the period mentioned. 

Determined to make an end of this great work at once, 
the Abraham was sent over to young Ooroony to ask for 
assistance. Glad enough was that chief. to grant what was 
demanded of him, and he came himself, at the head of five 
hundred men, to aid his friend in finishing this task. Even 
this strong body of laborers was busy two months longer, 
before the governor pronounced the great end accomplished. 
Then he dismissed his neighbors with such gifts and pay 
as sent away everybody contented. Many persons thought 
the experiment of bringing so many savages to the Reef 
somewhat hazardous ; but no harm ever came of it. On 
the contrary, the intercourse had a good effect, by making 
the two people better acquainted with each other. The 
governor had a great faculty in the management of those 
wild beings. He not only kept them in good humor, but 
what was far more difficult, he made them work. They 
were converted into a sort of Irish for his colony. It is 


THE CRATER. 


360 

true, one civilized man could do more than three of .he 
Kannakas ; but the number of the last was so large that 
they accomplished a great deal during their stay. 

Nor would the governor have ventured to let such dan- 
gerous neighbors into the group, had there not been still 
more imposing mysteries connected with the Peak, into 
which they were not initiated. Even young Ooroony was 
kept in ignorance of what was to be found on that dreaded 
island. He saw vessels going and coming, knew that the 
governor often went there, saw strange faces appearing oc- 
casionally on the Reef, that were understood to belong to • 
the unknown land, and probably to a people who weie 
much more powerful than those who were in direct com- 
municatioii with the natives. 

The governor induced his Kannakas to work by interest- 
ing them in the explosions of the blasts, merely to enjoy 
the pleasure of seeing a cart-load of rock torn from its bed. 
One of these men would work at a drill all day, and then 
carry off the fragments to be placed in the walls, after he 
had had his sport in tliis operation of blasting. They 
seemed never to tire of the fun, and it was greatly ques- 
tioned if half as much labor could have been got out of 
them at any other work, as at this. j 

A good deal of attention was paid to rendering the soil 
of the colony garden fertile, as well as deep. In its shal- 
lowest places it exceeded a foot in depth, and in the deepest, 
spots where natural fissures had aided the drill, it required'.! 
four or five feet of materials to form the level. These deep 
places were all marked, and were reserved for the support 
of trees. Not only was sand freely mixed with the mud, 
or muck, but sea-weed in large quantities was laid near the 
surface, and finally covered with the soil. In this manner 
was a foundation made that could not fail to sustain a gar- 
den luxuriant in its products, aided by the genial heat and 
plentiful rains of the climate. Shrubs, flowers, grass, and 
ornamental trees, however, were all the governor aimed at 
in these public grounds ; the plain of the crater furnishing I 
fruit and vegetables in an abundance, as yet far exceeding I 
the wants of the whole colony. The great jdanger, indeed 


THE CRATER. 


361 


tliat the governor most apprehended, was -that the benefi- 
cent products of. the region would render his people indo- 
lent ; an idle nation becoming, almost infallibly, vicious as 
well as ignorant. It was with a view to keep the colony 
on the advance, and to maintain a spirit of improvement, 
that so much attention was so early bestowed on what 
might otherwise be regarded as purely intellectual pursuits 
which, by creating new wants, might induce their subjects 
to devise the means of supplying them. 

The governor judged right ; for tastes are commonly ac- 
quired by imitation, and when thus acquired, they take the 
strongest hold of those who cultivate them. The effect 
produced by the Colony Garden, or public grounds, was 
such as twenty -fold to return the cost and labor bestowed 
on it. The sight of such an improvement set both men 
r and women to work throughout the group, and not a dwell- 
l ing was erected in the town, that the drill did not open the 
rock, and mud and sand form a garden. Nor did the gov- 
ernor himself confine his horticultural improvements to 
the gardens mentioned. Before he sent away his legion of 
five hundred, several hundred blasts were made in isolated 
spots on the Reef ; j^laces where the natural formation fa- 
vored such a project ; and holes were formed that would 
receive a boat-load of soil each. In these places trees were 
set out, principally cocoa-nuts, and such other plants as 
I were natural to the situation, due care being taken to see 
that each had sufficient nourishment. 

The result of all this industry was to produce a great 
change in the state of things at the Reef. In addition to 
the buildings erected, and to the gardens made and planted 
within the town itself, the whole surface of the island was 
more or less altered. Verdure soon made its appearance 
in places where, hitherto, nothing but naked rock had been 
seen, and trees began to cast their shades over the young 
and delicious grasses. As for the town itself, it was cer- 
tainly no great matter ; containing about twenty dwellings, 
and otherwise being of very modest pretensions. Those 
who dwelt there were principally such mechanics as found 
it convenient to be at the centre of the settlement, some 


362 


THE CRATER. 


half a' dozen persons employed about the warehouses of 
the merchants, a few officials of the government, and the 
families of those who depended mainly on the sea for their 
support. Each and all of these heads of families had drawn 
their lots, both in the group and on the Peak, though some 
had sold their rights the better to get a good start in their 
particular occupations. The merchants, however, estab- 
lished themselves on the Reef, as a matter of necessity, 
each causing a warehouse to be constructed near the water, 
with tackles and all the usual conveniences for taking in 
and delivering goods. Each also had his dwelling near at 
hand. As these persons had come well provided for the 
Indian trade in particular, having large stocks of such 
cheap and coarse articles as took with the natives, they 
were already driving a profitable business, receiving con- 
siderable quantities of sandal-wood in exchange for their 
goods. 

It is worthy of being mentioned, that the governor and 
council early passed a sort of navigation act, the effect of 
which was to secure the carrying trade to the colony. The 
motive, however, was more to keep the natives within safe 
limits, than to monopolize the profits of the seas. By the 
provisions qf-^this law, no canoe could pass from Betto’s 
group to either of the islands of the colony, without ex- 
press permission from the governor. In order to carry on 
the trade, the parties met on specified days at Ooroony’s 
village, and there made their exchanges ; vessels being sent 
from the Reef to bring away the sandal-wood. With a 
view to the final transportation of the last to a market, 
Saunders had been instructed to purchase a suitable vessel, 
which was to return with the Rancocus, freighted with 
such heavy and cheap implements as were most wanted in 
the colony, including cows and mares in particular. Phys- 
ical force, in the shape of domestic animals, was greatly 
wanted ; and it was perhaps the most costly of all the sup- 
plies introduced into the settlements. Of horned cattle 
there were already about five-and-tweiity head in the col- 
- ony — enough to make sure of the breed; but they were 
either cows, steers too young to be yet of much use, and 


THE CRATER. 


363 


calves. Nothing was killed, of course ; but so much time 
must pass before the increase would give the succor 
wanted, that the governor went to unusual expense and 
trouble to make additions to the herd from abroad. 

As for the horses, but three had been brought over, two 
of which were mares. The last had foaled twice ; and there 
were four colts, all doing well, but wanting age to be use- 
full. All the stock of this character was kept on the Peak, 
in order to secure it from invaders ; and the old animals, 
even to the cows, were lightly worked there, doing a vast 
deal that would otherwise remain undone. It was so ob- 
viously advantageous to increase the amount of this sort of 
force, that Saunders had strict orders to purchase the ves- 
sel mentioned, and to bring over as many beasts as he 
could conveniently and safety stow. With this object in 
view, he was directed to call in, on the western side of 
Cape Horn, and to make his purchases in South America. 
The horned cattle might not be so good, coming from such 
a quarter, but the dangers of doubling the Cape would be 
avoided. 

While making these general and desultory statements 
touching the progress of the colony, it may be well to say 
a word of Rancocus Island. The establishments necessary 
there, to carry on the mills, lime and brick kilns, and the 
stone-quarry, induced the governor to erect a small work, 
in which the persons employed in that out-colony might 
take refuge, in the event of an invasion. This was done 
accordingly ; and two pieces of artillery were regularly 
mounted on it. Nor was the duty of fortifying neglected 
elsewhere. As for the Peak, it was not deemed necessary 
to do more than improve a little upon nature ; the colony 
being now too numerous to suppose that it could not de-- 
fend the cove against any enemy likely to land there, 
should the entrance of that secret haven be detected. On 
the Reef, however, it was a very different matter. That 
place was as accessible as the other was secure. The con- 
struction of so many stout stone edifices contributed largely 
to the defense of the town ; but the governor saw the ne- 
cessity of providing the means of commanding the a])- 


8G4 


^ THE CRATER. 


proaclLes bj water. Four distinct passages, each corre* ! 
spondiug to a cardinal point of the compass, led from the ; 
crater out to sea. As the south passage terminated at the 
bridge, it w'as sufficiently commanded by the Colony House. 
But all the others were wider, more easy of approach, and 
less under the control of the adjacent islands. But the 
Summit had points whence each might be raked by* guns 
properly planted, and batteries were accordingly con- 
stucted on these points ; the twelve-pounder being used 
for their armaments. Each battery had two guns; and 
when all was completed, it was the opinion of the governor 
that the post was sulHciently well fortified. In order, how- 
ever, to give additional security, the crater was tabooed to 
all the Kannakas ; not one of whom was permitted ever to 
enter it, or even to go near it. 

But defense, and building, and making soil, did not alto- 
gether occupy the attention of the colonists during these j 
important twelve months. Both the brothers of the gov- ! 
ernor got married ; the oldest, or the attorney-general, to 
the oldest sister of John Pennock, and the youngest to a 
sister of the Pev. Mr. Hornblower. It was in this simple 
colony, as it ever has been, and ever will be in civilized 
society, that, in forming matrimonial connections, like looks 
for like. There was no person, or family at the Reef 
which could be said to belong to the highest social class of 
America, if, indeed, any one could rank as high as a class 
immediately next to the highest ; yet, distinctions existed 
which were maintained usefully, and without a thought of 
doing them away. The notion that money alone makes 
those divisions into castes which are everywhere to be 
found, and which will probably continue to be found as long 
as society itself exists, is a very vulgar and fallacious no- .. 
tion. It comes from the difficulty of appreciating those ' 
tastes and qualities which, not possessing ourselves, are so \ 
many unknown and mysterious influences. In marrying 1 
Sarah Pennock, John Woolston was slightly conscious of j 
making a little sacrifice in these particulars, but she was a i 
very pretty,' modest^irl, of a suitable age, and the circle to j 
choose from, it will be remembered, was very limited. In | 


THE CRATER. 


365 


America that connection might not have taken place ; but, 
at the crater, it was all well enough, and it turned out to 
be a very haj:ypy union. Had the sacrifice of habits and 
tastes been greater, this might not have been the fact, for 
it is certain that our happiness depends more on the sub- 
ordinate qualities and our cherished usages, than on prin- 
ciples themselves. It is difficult to suppose that any refined 
woman, for instance, can ever thoroughly overcome 'her 
disgust for a man who habitually blows his nose with his 
fingers, or that one bred a gentleman' can absolutely over- 
look, even in a wife, the want of the thousand and one 
little lady-like habits, which render the sex perhaps more 
attractive than to their personal charms. X 

Several other marriages took place, the scarcity of sub- 
jects making it somewhat hazardous to delay : when Hob- 
son’s choice is placed before one, deliberation is of no great 
use. It was generally understood, that the Rancocus was 
to bring out very few immigrants, though permission had 
been granted to Captain Saunders to take letters to cer- 
tain friends of some already settled in the colony, with the 
understanding that those friends were to be received, should 
they determine to come. That point, however, was soon 
to be decided, for just a year and one week after the Ran- 
cocus had sailed from Betto’s group, the news reached the 
Reef that the good ship was coming into the northern 
roads, and preparing to anchor. The governor imme- 
diately went on board the Anne, taking Betts with him, 
and made sail for the point in question, with a view to 
bring the vessel through the passage to the Reef. The 
governor and Betts were the only two who, as it was be- 
! lieved, could carry so large a vessel through; though later 
soundings showed it was only necessary to keep clear of 
the points and the shores, in order to bring in a craft of 
any draught of water. 

When the Anne ran out into the roads, there she found 
the Rancocus at anchor, sure enough. On nearing her. 
Captain Saunders appeared on her poop, and in answer to 
a hail, gave the welcome answer of “ all well.” Those 
I comprehensive words removed a great deal of anxiety from 


366 


THE CRATER. 


the mind of the governor; absence being, in one sense, tha 
parent of uncertainty, and uncertainty of uneasiness. 
Everything about the ship, however, looked well, and to 
the surprise of those in the Anne, many heads belonging 
to otheys beside the crew were to be seen above the rail. 
A sail was in sight, moreover, standing in, and this vessel 
Captain Saunders stated was the brig Henlopen, purchased 
on government account, and loaded with stock, and other 
property for the colony. 

On going on board the Eancocus it was ascertained that, 
in all, one hundred and eleven new immigrants had been 
brought out ! The circle of the affections had been set at 
work, and one friend had induced another to enter into the 
adventure, until it was found that, less than the number 
mentioned could not be gotten rid of. That which could 
not be cured was to be endured, and the governor’s dissat- 
isfaction was a good deal appeased when he learned that 
the new-comers were of excellent materials ; being, without 
exception, young, healthful, moral, and all possessed of 
more or less substance, in the way of worldly goods. This 
accession to the colony brought its population up to rather, 
more than five hundred souls, of which number, however, 
near a hundred and fifty were children, or under the age 
of fourteen years. 

Glad enough were the new-comers to land at a little set- 
tlement which had been made on the island which lay 
abreast of the roads, and where, indeed, there was a very 
convenient harbor, did vessels choose to use it. The roads, 
however, had excellent anchorage, and were perfectly pro- 
tected against the prevailing winds of that region. Only 
once, indeed, since the place was inhabited, had the wind 
been known to blow on shore at that point ; and then only 
during a brief squall. In general, the place was every 
way favorable for the arrival and departure of shipping, 
the trades making a leading breeze both in going and com- 
ing — as, indeed, they did all the way to and from the 
Reef. A long-headed emigrant, of the name of Dunks, 
had foreseen the probable future importance of this outer 
harbor, and had made such an arrangement with the coun» 


THE CRATER. 


367 


cil, as to obtain leave for hitnself and three or four of his 
connections to exchange the land they had drawn, against 
an equal quantity in this part of the group. The arrange- 
ment was made, and this little, out-lying colony had now 
been established an entire season. As the spot ^ was a 
good deal exposed to an invasion, a stone dwelling had 
been erected, that was capable of accommodating the whole 
party, and pickets were placed around it in such a way as 
to prove an ample defense against any attempt to carry 
the work by assault. The governor had lent them a field- 
piece, and it w.as thought the whole disposition was favor- 
able to the security of the colony, since no less than eleven 
combatants could be mustered here to repel invasion. 

The immigrants, as usual, found everything charming, 
when their feet touched terra jirma. The crops did look 
well, and the island being covered with mud, the sand had 
done wonders for the vegetation. It is true that trees 
were wanting, though the pickets, or palisades, being of 
willow, had all sprouted, and promised soon to inclose the 
dwelling in a grove. Some fifty acres had been tilled, 
more or less thoroughly, and timothy was already growing 
that was breast-high. Clover looked well, too, as did 
everything else ; the guano having lost none of its virtue 
since the late arrivals. 

The governor sent back the Anne, with instructions to 
prepare room for the immigrants in the government dwell- 
ing, which, luckily, was large enough to receive them all. 
He waited with the Rancocus, however, for the Henlopen 
to come in and anchor. He then went on board this brig, 
and took a look at the stock. Saunders, a discreet, sensi- 
ble man, so well understood the importance of adding to 
the physical force of the colony, in the way of brutes, that 
he had even strained the point to bring as many mares and 
cows as he could stow. He had put on board twenty-five 
of the last, and twenty of the first; all purchased at Val- 
paraiso. The weather had been so mild, that no injury had 
happened to the beasts, but the length of the passage had 
so far exhausted the supplies that not a mouthful of food 
had the poor animals tasted for’the twenty-four hours be- 


368 


THE CRATER. 


fore they got in. The water, too, was scarce, and any-^ 
thing but sweet. For a month everything had been on 
short allowance, and the suffering creatures must have been 
enchanted to smell the land. Smell it they certainly did ; 
for such a lowing, and neighing, and fretting did they 
keep up, when the governor got alongside of the brig, that 
he could not endure the sight of their misery, but deter- 
mined at once to relieve it. 

The brig was anchored within two hundred yards of a 
fine sandy beach, on which there were several runs of de- 
licious water, and which communicated directly with a 
meadow of grass, as high as a man’s breast. A bargain 
was soon made with Dunks ; and the two crews, that of 
the Rancocus as well as that of the brig, were set to work 
without delay to hoist out every creature having a hoof, 
that was on board the Henlopen. As slings were all ready', 
little delay was necessary, but a mare soon rose through 
the hatchway, was swung over the vessel’s side, and was 
lowered into the water. A very simple contrivance re- 
leased the creature from the slings, and off it swam, mak- 
ing the best of its way towards the land. In three min- 
utes the poor thing was on the beach, though actually 
staggering from weakness, and from long use to the motion 
of the vessel. The water was its first aim. Dunks was 
there, however, to prevent it from' drinking too much, when 
it made its way up to the grass, which it began to eat rav- 
enously. All the rest went through the same process, and 
in a couple of hours the poor things were relieved from 
their misery, and the brig, which smelled like a stable, was 
well quit of them. Brooms and water were set to work 
immediately, but it was a month before the Henlopen lost 
the peculiar odor of the cattle. 

Nor were the human beings much less rejoiced to get 
a>hore than the brutes. Dunks gave them all a hearty 
welcome, and though he had little fruit to offer, he had 
plenty of vegetables, for which they were quite as thank- 
ful. Melons, however, he could and did give them, aiul 
the human part of the cargo had an ample feast on a sort 
of food to which they had now so long been strangers 


THE CRATER. 


809 


The horses and cows were left on Dunks’s Island, where 
they stayed until word was set to the governor that they 
had eaten down all his grass, and would soon be on allow- 
ance again, unless taken away. Means, however, were 
soon found to relieve him of the stock, though his mead- 
ows, or pastures rather, having been seldom cut in that 
climate, were much improved by the visit paid them. As 
for the animals, they were parceled out among the differ- 
ent farms, thus giving a little milk, and a little additional 
force to each neighborhood. Fowls and pigs had been dis- 
tributed some time previously, so that not a man in the 
group was without his breeding sow, and his brood of young 
chickens. These were species of stock that increased so 
rapidly, that a little care alone was wanting to make eggs 
and pork plenty. Corn, or maize, grew just for the plant- 
ing ; though it was all the better, certainly, for a little 
care. 

After sufficient time had been allowed to make the nec- 
essary preparations, the vessels sailed with the immigrants 
for the Reef. There was many a glad meeting betweeu 
friends and relatives. Those who had just arrived had a 
great deal to tell those who had preceded them by eighteen 
months, and those who now considered themselves old set- 
tlers, entertained the new ones with the wonders of their 
novel situations. 


370 


THE CRATER. 


CHAPTER XXIY. 

Welter upon the waters, mighty one — 

And stretch thee in the ocean’s trough of brine; 

Turn thy wet scales up to the wind and sun, 

And toss the billow' from thy flashing fin ; 

Heave thy deep breathing to the ocean’s din. 

And bound upon its ridges in thy pride. 

Or dive down to its lowest depths, and in 
The caverns where its unknown monsters hide 
Measure thy length beneath the gulf-stream’s tide. 

Bkainard’s Sea-Serpent. 

The colony had now reached a point when its policy 
must have an eye to its future destinies. If it were in- 
tended to push it, like a new settlement, a very different 
course ought to be pursued from the one hitherto adopted. 
But the governor and council entertained more moderate 
views. They understood their real position better. It was 
true that the Peak, in one sense, or in that which related 
to soil and products, was now in a condition to receive 
immigrants as fast as they could come ; but the Peak had 
its limits, and it could hold but a very circumscribed 
number. As to the group, land had to be formed for the 
reception of the husbandman, .^little more than the ele- 
ments of soil existing over so much of its surface. Then, 
in the way of trade, there could not be any very great 
inducement for adventurers to come, since the sandal-wood 
was the only article possessed which would command a 
price in a foreign market. This sandal-wood, moreover, 
did not belong to the colony, but to a people who might, 
at any moment, become hostile, and who already began to 
complain that the article was getting to be very scarce. 
Under all the circumstances therefore, it was not deemed 
desirable to add to the population of the place faster than 
would now be done by natural means. 

The cargoes of the two vessels just arrived were divided 


THE CRATER. 


371 


between the state and the governor, by a very just proc- 
ess. The governor had one half the proceeds for his own 
private use, as owner of the Rancocus, without which 
vessel nothing could have been done; while the state re- 
ceived the other moiety, in virtue of the labor of its citi- 
zens as well as in that of its right to impose duties on im- 
ports and exports. Of the por-tion which went to the 
state, certain parts were equally divided between the col- 
onists, for immediate use, while other parts of the cargo 
were placed in ston\ and held as a stock, to be drawn upon 
as occasion might arise. 

The voyage, like most adventures in sandal-wood, teas, 
etc., in that day, had been exceedingly advantageous, and 
produced a most beneficent influence on the fortunes and 
comforts of the settlement. A well-selected cargo of the 
coarse, low-priced articles most needed in such a colony, 
could easily have been purchased with far less than the 
proceeds of the cargo of tea that had been obtained at 
Canton, in exchange for the sandal- wood carried out ; 
and Saunders, accordingly, had filled the holds of both 
vessels with such articles, besides bringing home with 
him a considerable amount in specie, half of which went 
into the public coffers, and half into the private purse of 
governor Woolston. Money had been in circulation in 
the colony for the last twelve months ; though a good 
deal of caution was used in suffering it to pass from hand 
to hand. The disposition was to hoard ; but this fresh 
arrival of specie gave a certain degree of confidence, and 
the silver circulated a great deal more freely after it was 
known that so considerable an amount had been brought 
ill. 

It would scarcely be in our power to enumerate the ar- 
ticles that were received by these arrivals ; they included 
everything in common use among civilized men, from a 
grind-stone to a cart. Groceries, too, had been* brought in 
reasonable quantities, including teas, sugars, etc., though 
these articles were not so much considered necessaries in 
America fifty years ago as they are to-day. The groceries 
of the state as well as many other articles, were put into 


372 


THE CRATEE. 


the hands of the merchants, who either purchased them 
out and out, to dispose of at retail, or who took them on 
commission with the same object. From this time, there- 
fore, regular shops existed, there being three on the Reef 
and one on the Peak, where nearly everything in use could 
be bought, and that, too, at prices that were far from being 
exorbitant. The absence of import duties had a great in- 
fluence on the cost of things, the state getting its receipts 
in kind; directly through the labor of its citizens, instead of 
looking to a custom-house in quest of its share for the gen- 
eral prosperity. 

At that time very little was written about the great fal- 
lacy of the present day. Free Trade ; which is an illusion 
about which men now talk, and dispute, and almost fight, 
while no living mortal can tell what it really is. It is wise 
for us in America, who never had anything but free trade, 
according to modern doctrines, to look a little closely into 
the sophisms that are getting to be so much in vogue ; and 
which, whenever they come from our illustrious ancestors 
in Great Britain, have some snch effect on the imaginations 
of a portion of our people, as purling rills and wooded 
cascades are known to possess over those of certain young 
ladies of fifteen. 

Free trade, in its true signification, or in the only signi- 
fication which is not a fallacy, can only mean a commerce 
that is totally unfettered by duties, restrictions, prohibitions, 
and charges of all sorts. Except among savages, the 
world never yet saw such a state of things, and proba- 
bly never will. Even free trade ports have exactions that, 
in a degree, counteract their pretended principle of lib- 
erty ; and no free port exists, that is anything more, in a 
strict interpretation of its uses, than a sort of bonded 
warehouse. So long as your goods remain there, on de- 
posit, and unappropriated, they are not taxed ; but the in- 
stant they are taken to the consumer, the customary imposi- 
tions must be paid. 

Freer trade — that is, a trade which is less encumbered 
than some admitted state of things which previously ex- 
isted — is easily enough comprehended; but, instead of 


THE CRATER. 


373 


conveying to the mind any general theory, it merely shows 
that a lack of wisdom may have prevailed in the manage- 
ment of some particular interest ; which lack of wisdom is 
now being tardily repaired. Prohibitions, whether direct, 
or in the form of impositions that the trade will not bear, 
may be removed without leaving trade free. This or that 
article may be thrown open to the general competition, 
without import duty or tax of any sort, and yet the great 
bulk of the commerce of a country be so fettered as to 
put an effectual check upon anything like liberal inter- 
course. Suppose, for instance, that Virginia were an in- 
dependent country. Its exports would be tobacco, flour, 
and corn ; the tobacco crop probably more than equaling 
in value those portions of tJie other crops which are sent 
out of the country. England is suffering for food, and she 
takes off everything like imposts on the eatables, while she 
taxes tobacco to the amount of many hundred per cent. 
Can that be called free trade ? 

There is another point of view in which we could wish 
to protest against the shouts and fallacies of the hour. 
Trade, perhaps the most corrupt and corrupting influence 
of life — or, if second to anything in evil, se'cond only to 
politics — is proclaimed to be the great means of human- 
izing, enlightening, liberalizing, and improving the human 
race ! Now, against this monstrous mistake in morals, we 
would fain raise our feeble voices in sober remonstrance. 
That the intercourse which is a consequence of commerce 
may, in certain ways, liberalize a man’s views, we are will- 
ing to admit ; though, at the same time, we shall insist that 
there are better modes of attaining the same ends. But ijt 
strikes us as profane to ascribe to this frail and mercenary 
influence a power which there is every reason to believe 
the Almighty has bestowed on the Christian church, and 
on that alone ; a church which is opposed to most of the 
practices of trade, which rebukes them in nearly every line 
of its precepts, and which, carried out in its purity, can 
alone give the world that liberty and happiness which a 
grasping spirit of cupidity is so ready do impute to the de- 
sire to accumulate gold ! 


374 


THE CRATER. 


Fortunately, there was little occasion to dispute about 
the theories of commerce at the Reef. The little trade 
that did exist was truly unfettered; but no one supposed 
that any man was nearer to God on that account, except 
as he was farther removed from temptations to do wrong. 
Still, the governing principle was sound; not by canting 
about the beneficent and holy influences of commerce, but 
by leaving to each man his individuality, or restraining it 
only on those points which the public goo4 demanded. 
Instead of monopolizing the trade of the colony, which his 
superior wealth and official power would have rendered 
very easy. Governor Woolston acted in the most liberal 
spirit to all around him. ^ With the exception of the Anne, 
which was built by the colony, the council had decided, in 
seme measure contrary to his wishes, though in strict ac- 
cordance with what was right, that all the vessels were the 
private property of Mark. After this decision, the gov- 
ernor formally conveyed the Mermaid and the Abraham to 
the state ; the former to be retained principally as a cruiser 
and a packet, while the last was in daily use as a means of 
conveying articles and passengers from one island to the 
other. The Neshamony was presented, out and out, to 
Betts, who turned many a penny with her, by keeping her 
running through the different passages, with freight, etc. ; 
going from plantation to plantation, as these good people 
were in the practice of calling their farms. Indeed, Bob did 
little else, until the governor, seeing his propensity to stick 
by the water, and ascertaining that the intercourse would 
justify such an investment, determined to build him a sloop, 
in order that he might use her as a sort of packet and 
market-boat, united. A vessel of about forty-five tons was 
laid down accordingly, and put into the water at the end 
of six months, that was just the sort of craft suited to 
Bob’s wishes and wants. In the mean time, the honest 
fellow had resigned his seat in the council, feeling that he 
was out of his place in such a body, among men of more 
or less education, and of habits so much superior and more 
refined than his own. Mark did not oppose this step in his 
friend, but rather encouraged it ; being persuaded nothiirg 


THE CRATER. 


375 


was gained by forcing upon a man duties he was hardly 
fitted to discharge. Self-made men, he well knew, were 
sometimes very useful ; but he also knew that they must 
be first made. 

The name of this new sloop was the Martha, being thus 
called in compliment to her owner’s sober-minded, indus- 
trious, and careful wife. She (the sloop, and not Mrs. 
Betts) was nearly all cabin, having lockers forward and 
aft, and was fitted with benches on her wings, steamboat 
fashion. Her canvas was of light duck, there being very 
little heavy weather in that climate ; so that assisted by a 
boy and a Kannaka, honest Bob could do anything he 
wished with his craft. He often went to the Peak and 
Rancocus Island in her, always doing something useful ; 
and he even made several trips in her, within the first few 
months he had her running, as far as Betto’s group. On 
these last voyages, he carried over Kannakas as passen- 
gers, as well as various small articles, such as fish-hooks, 
old iron, hatchets even, and now and then a little tobacco. 
These he exchanged for cocoa-nuts, which were yet scarce 
in the colony, on account of the number of mouths to 
consume them ; baskets, Indian cloth, paddles which the 
islanders made very beautifully and with a' great deal of 
care ; bread-fruit, and other plants that abounded more at 
Betto’s group than at the Reef, or even on the Peak. 

But the greatest voyage Betts made that season was 
when he took a freight of melons. This was a fruit which 
now abounded in the colony ; so much so as to be fed even 
to the hogs, while the natives knew nothing of it beyond 
the art of eating it. They were extraordinarily fond of 
melons, and Bob actually filled the cabin of the Martha 
with articles obtained in exchange for his cargo. Among 
other things obtained on this occasion, was a sufficiency of 
sandal-wood to purchase for the owner of the sloop as 
many groceries as he could consume in his family for 
twelve months ; though groceries were high, as may well 
be supposed, in a place like tlfb Reef. Betts always ad- 
mitted that the first great turn in his fortune was the 
money made on this voyage, in which he embarked with- 


376 


THE CRATER. 


out the least apprehension of Waally, and his never-ceas- 
ing wiles and intrigues. Indeed, most of his sales were 
made to that subtle and active chief, who dealt very fairly 
by him. 

All this time the Rancocus was laid up for want of 
something to freight her with. At one time the governor 
thought of sending her to pick up a cargo where she 
could ; but a suggestion by a seaman of the name of 
Walker set him on a different track, and put on foot an 
adventure which soon attracted the attention of most of 
the sea-faring portion of the community. 

It had been observed by the crew of the Rancocus, not 
only in her original run through those seas, but in her two 
subsequent passages from America, that the spermaceti 
whale abounded in all that part of the ocean which lay to 
windward of the group. Now Walker had once been sec- 
ond officer of a Nantucket craft, and was regularly brought 
up to the business of taking whales. Among the colo- 
nists were half a dozen others who had done more or less 
at the same business; and, at the suggestion of Walker, 
who had gone out in the Rancocus as her first officer. 
Captain Saunders laid in a provision of such articles as 
were necessary to set up the business. These consisted 
of cordage, harpoons, spades, lances, and casks. Then 
no small part of the lower hold of the Henlopen was 
stowed with shook casks ; iron for hoops, etc., being also 
provided. 

As the sandal-wood was now obtained in only small 
quantities, all idea of sending the ship to Canton again, 
that year, was necessarily abandoned. At first this seemed 
to be a great loss ; but when the governor came to reflect 
coolly on the subject, not only he, but the council gener- 
ally, came to the conclusion that Providence was dealing 
more mercifully with them, by turning the people into this 
new channel of commerce, than to leave them to pursue 
their original track. Sandal-wood had a purely adventi- 
tious value, though it brought, particularly in that age, a 
most enormous profit ; one so large, indeed, as to have a 
direct and quick tendency to demoralize those embarked in 


THE CRATER. 


377 


the trade. Tl^e whaling business, on the other hand, while 
it made large returns, demanded industry, courage, perse- 
verance, and a fair amount of capital. Of vessels, the 
colonists had all they wanted ; the forethought of Saun- 
ders and the suggestions of Walker furnished the particu- 
lar means ; and of provisions there was now a superabun- 
dance in the group. 

It-was exceedingly fortunate that such an occupation 
offered to interest and keep alive the spirit of the colo- 
nists. Man must have something to do ; some main ob- 
ject to live for ; or he is apt to degenerate in his ambition, 
and to fall off in his progress. No sooner was it an- 
nounced that whales were to be taken, however, than even 
the women became alive to the results of the enterprise. 
This feeling was kept up by the governor’s letting it be 
officially known that each colonist should have one share, 
or “ lay,” as it was termed, in the expected cargo ; which 
share, or “ lay,” was to be paid for in provisions. Those 
actually engaged in the business had as many “ lays ” as it 
was thought they could earn ; the colony in its collected 
capacity had a certain number more, in return for articles 
received from the public stores ; and the governor, as 
owner of the vessels employed, received one fifth of the 
whole cargo, or cargoes. This last was a very small re- 
turn for the amount of capital employed ; and it was 
so understood by those who reaped the advantages of the 
owner’s liberality. 

The Rancocus was not fitted out as a whaler, but was 
reserved as a warehouse to receive the oil, to store it un- 
til a cargo was collected, and then was to be used as a 
means to convey it to America. For this purpose she was 
stripped, had her rigging thoroughly overhauled, was 
cleaned out and smoked for rats, and otherwise was pre- 
jjared for service. While in this state, she lay alongside 
of the natural quay, near and opposite to some extensive 
sheds which had been erected, as a protection against the 
heats of the climate. 

The Henlopen, a compact clump of a brig, tliat was 
roomy on deck, and had stout masts and good rigging, was 


378 


THE CRATER. 


fitted out for the whaler; though the Anue was sent to 
cruise in company. Five whale-boats, with the necessary 
crews, were employed ; two remaining with the Anne, and 
three in the brig. The Kannakas were found to be inde- 
fatigable at the oar, and a good number of them were 
used on this occasion. About twenty of the largest boys 
belonging to the colony were also sent out, in order to ac- 
custom them to the sea. These boys were between the 
ages of eight and sixteen, and were made useful in a vari- 
ety of ways. 

Great was the interest awakened in the colony when 
the Henlopen and the Anne sailed on this adventure. 
Many of the women, the wives, daughters, sisters, or 
sweethearts of the whalers, would gladly have gone along ; 
and so intense did the feeling become, that the governor 
determined to make a festival of the occasion, and to offer 
to take out himself, in the Mermaid, as many of both sexes 
as might choose to make a trip of a few days at sea, and 
be witnesses of the success of their friends in this new 
undertaking. Betts also , took a party in the Martha. 
The Abraham, too, was in company ; while the Nesha- 
mony was sent to leeward, to keep a look-out in that quar- 
ter, lest the natives should take it into their heads to visit j 
the group, while so many of its fighting-men^ fully a hun- 
dred altogether, were absent. It is true, those who stayed 
at home were fully able to beat off Waally and his follow- 
ers ; but the governor thought it prudent to have a look- 
out. Such was the difference produced by habit. When 
the whole force of the colony consisted of less than twenty 
men, it was thought sufficient to protect itself, could it be 
brought to act together ; whereas, now, when ten times 
twenty were left at home, unusual caution was deemed 
necessary, because the colony was weakened by this expe- 
dition of so many of its members. But everything is 
comparative with man. 

When all was ready, the whaling expedition sailed ; the 
the governor leading on board the Mermaid, which had no > 
less than forty females in her — Bridget and Anne being i 
among them. The vessels went out_by the southern f 


THE CRATER. 


379 


channel, passing through the strait at the bridge in order 
to do so. This course was taken, as it would be easier to 
turn to windward in the open water between the south 
cape and the Peak, than to do it in the narrow passages 
between the islands of the group. The Mermaid led off 
handsomely, sparing the Henlopen her courses and royals. 
Even the Abraham could spare the last vessel her foresail, 
the new purchase turning out to be anything but a trav- 
eler. The women wondered how so slow a vessel could 
ever catch a whale ! 

The direction steered by the fleet carried it close under 
the weather side of the Peak, the summit of which was 
crowded by the population, to see so unusual and pleasing 
a sight. The Martha led, carrying rather more sail, in 
proportion to her size than the Mermaid. It happened, by 
one of those vagaries of fortune which so often thwart the 
best calculations, that a spout was seen to windward of the 
cliffs, at a moment when the sloop was about a league 
I nearer to it than any other vessel. Now, every vessel in 
the fleet had its whale-boat and whale-boat’s crew ; though 
the men of all but those who belonged to the Henlopen 
were altogether inexperienced. It is true, they had learned 
tlie theory of the art of taking a whale ; but they were 
utterly wanting in the practice. Betts was not the man 
to have the game in view, however, and not make an effort 
to overcome it. His boat was manned in an instant, and 
away he went, with Socrates in the bows, to fasten to a 
huge creature that was rolling on the water in a species of 
sluggish enjoyment of its instincts. It often happens that 
very young soldiers, more especially when an esj^rit de 
corps has been awakened in them, achieve things from 
which older troops would retire, under the consciousness 
of their hazards. So did it prove with the Martha’s boat’s 
crew on this occasion. Betts steered, and he put them 
directly on the whale ; Socrates, who looked fairly green 
under the influence of alarm and eagerness to attack, both 
increased by the total novelty of his situation, making his 
dart of the harpoon when the bows of the fragile craft were 
literally over the huge body of the animal. All the energy 


380 


THE CRATER. 


of the negro was thrown into his blow, for he felt as if it ! 
were life or death with him ; and the whale spouted blood 
immediately. It is deemed a great exploit with whalers, ! 
though it is not of very rare occurrence, to inflict a death- ! 
wound with the harpoon ; that implement being intended 
to make fast with to the fish, which is subsequently slain 
with what is termed a lance.. But Socrates actually killed 
the first whale he ever struck, with the harpoon ; and from 
that moment he became an important personage in the 
fisheries of those seas. That blow was a sort of Palo Alto 
affair to him, and was the forerunner of many similar suc- 
cesses. Indeed, it soon got to be said, that “ with Bob 
Betts to put the boat on, and old Sock to strike, a whale 
commonly has a hard time on’t.” It is true, that a good 
many boats were stove, and two Kannakas were drowned, 
that very summer, in consequence of these tactics ; but 
the whales were killed, and Betts and the black escaped 
with whole skins. 

On this, the first occasion, the whale made the water 
foam, half-filled the boat, and would have dragged it under 
but for the vigor of the negro’s arm, and the home char- 
acter of the blow, which caused the fish to turn up and 
breathe his last, before he had time to run any great dis- 
tance. The governor arrived on the spot, just as Bob had 
got a haw'ser to the wdiale and was ready to fill away for 
the South Cape channel again. The vessels passed each 
other cheering, and the governor admonished his friend not 
to carry the carcass too near the dwellings, lest it should 
render them uninhabitable. But Betts had his anchoraofe 
already in his eye, and away he went, with tlie wind onJ 
his quarter, towing his prize at the rate of four or five 
knots. It may be said, here, that the Martha went into 
the passage, and that the whale was floated into shallow 
water, wdiere sinking was out of the question, and Bob and 
his Kannakas, about twenty in number, went to work to 
peel off the blubber in a very efficient, though not in a very 
scientific, or artistical manner. They got the creature 
stripped of its jacket of fat that very night, and next morn- 
ing the Martha appeared with a set of kettles, in which the 


THE CRATER. 


381 


blubber was tried out. Casks were also brought iu the 
sloop, and, when the work was done, it was found that 'that 
single whale yielded one hundred and eleven barrels of oil, 
of which thirty-three barrels were head-matter! This was 
a capital commencement for the new trade, and Betts con- 
veyed the whole of his prize to the Reef, where the oil was 
C started into the ground-tier of the Rancocus, the casks of 
^ which were newly repaired, and ready stowed to receive it. 
“ A week later, as the governor in the Mermaid, cruising 
in company with the Henlopen and Abraham, was looking 
out for whales about a hundred miles to windward of the 
j . Peak, having met with no success, he was again joined by 
Betts in the Martha. Everything 'was reported right at 
the Reef. The Neshamony had come in for provisions and 
, gone out again, and the Rancocus would stand up without 
.. watching, with her hundred and eleven barrels of oil in 
her lower hold. The governor expressed his sense of 
Betts’s services, and reminding him of his old faculty of 
, seeing farther and truer than most on board, he asked hiqi 
to go up into the brig’s cross-trees and take a look for 
whales. The keen-eyed fellow had not been aloft ten 
minutes, before the cry of “ Spouts — spouts ! ” was ringing 
through the vessel. The proper signal was made to the 
Henlopen and Abraham, when everybody made sail in the 
necessary direction. By sunset a great number of whales 
were fallen in with, and as Captain Walker gave it as his 
opinion they were feeding in that place, no attempt was 
made on them until morning. The next day, however, 
with the return of light, six boats were in the water, and 
pulling off towards the game. 

On this occasion. Walker led on, as became his rank and 
experience. In less than an hour he was fast to a very 
large whale, a brother of that taken by Betts ; and the 
females had the exciting spectacle of a boat towed by an 
enormous fish at a rate of no less than twenty knots in an 
hour. It is the practice among whalers for the vessel to 
keep working to windward, while the game is taking, in 
order to be in the most favorable position to close with the 
boats, after the whale is killed. So long, however, as the 


382 


THE CRATER. 


creature has life in it, it would be folly to aim at any other 
object than getting to windward, for the fish may be here 
at one moment, and a league off in a few minutes more. 
Sometimes the alarmed animal goes fairly out of sight of 
the vessel, running in a straight line some fifteen or twenty 
miles, when the alternatives are to run the chances of miss- 
ing the ship altogether, or to cut from the whale. By 
doing the last not only is a harpoon lost, but often several 
hundred fathoms of line ; and it not unfrequently happens 
that whales are killed with harpoons in them left by former 
assailants, and dragging after them a hundred or two fath- 
oms of line. 

It may be well, here, to explain to the uninitiated reader, 
that the harpoon is a barbed spear, with a small but stout 
cord or whale line fastened to it. The boat approaches 
the fish bow foremost, but is made sharp at both ends that 
it may “ back off,” if necessary ; the whale being often 
dangerous to approach, and ordinarily starting, when struck, 
in a way to render his immediate neighborhood somewhat 
ticklish. The fish usually goes down when harpooned, and 
the line must be permitted to “ run-out,” or he would drag 
the boat after him. But a whale must breathe as well as 
a man, and the faster he runs the sooner he must come up 
for a fresh stock of air. Now, the proper use of the 
harpoon and the line is merely to fasten to the fish ; though 
it does sometimes happen that the creature is killed by the 
former. As soon as the whale re-appears on the surface, 
and becomes stationary, or even moderates his speed a little, 
the men begin to haul in line, gradually closing with their 
intended victim. It often happens that the whale starts 
afresh, when line must be permitted to run out anew ; this 
process of “ hauling in ” and “ letting run ” being often re- 
newed several times at the taking of a single fish. When 
the boat can be hauled near enough, the officer at its head 
darts his lance into the whale, aiming at a vital part. If 
the creature “ spouts blood,” it is well ; but if not hit in the 
vitals, away it goes, and ^le whole business of “letting 
run,” “towing,” and “hauling in” has to be gone over 
again. 


THE CRATER. 


883 


On the present occasion, Walker’s harpooner, or boat- 
steerer, as he is called, had made a good “heave,” and 
was well fast to his fish. The animal made a great circuit, 
running completely round the Mermaid, at a distance 
which enabled those on board her to see all that was pass- 
ing. When nearest to the brig, and the water was curling 
off the bow of the boat in combs two feet higher than her 
gunwale, under the impulse given by the frantic career of 
the whale, Bridget pressed closer to her husband’s side, 
and, for the first time in her life, mentally thanked Heaven 
that he was the governor, since that was an office which 
did not require him to go forth and kill whales. At that 
very moment, Mark was burning with the desire to have 
a hand in the sport, though he certainly had some doubts 
whether such an occupation would suitably accord with the 
dignity of his office. 

Walker got alongside of his whale, within half a mile 
of the two brigs, and to leeward of both. In consequence 
of this favorable circumstance, the Henlopen soon had its 
prize hooked on, and her people at work stripping off the 
blubber. This is done by hooking the lower block of a 
powerful purchase in a portion of the substance, and then 
cutting a strip of convenient size, and heaving on the fall 
at the windlass. The strip is cut by implements called 
spades, and the blubber is torn from the carcass by the 
strain, after the sides of the “ blanket-piece,” as the strip 
is termed, are separated from the other portions of the ani- 
mal by the cutting process. The “ blanket-pieces ” are 
often raised as high as the lower mast-heads, or as far as 
the purchase will admit of its being carried, when a trans- 
verse cut is made, and the whole of the fragment is lowered 
on deck. This “ blanket-piece ” is then cut into pieces 
and put into the try- works, a large boiler erected on deck, 
in order to be “ tried-out,” when the oil is cooled, and 
“started” below into casks. In this instance, the oil was 
taken on board the Abraham as fast as it was “ tried-out ” 
on boai^d the Henlopen, the weather admitting of the 
transfer. 

But that single whale was far from being the only fruits 


884 


THE CRATER. 


of Betts’s discovery. The honest old Delaware seaman i 
took two more whales himself, Socrates making fast, and , 
he killing the creatures. The boats of the Henlopen also i 
took two more, and that of the Abraham one. Betts in the 
Martha, and the governor in the Mermaid towed four of 1 
these whales into the southern channel, and into what i 
got the name of the Whaling Bight. This was the spot 
where Betts had tried out the first fish taken, and it proved 
to be every way suitable for its business. The Bight 
formed a perfectly safe harbor, and there was not only a 
sandy shoal on which the whales could be floated and kept 
from sinking, a misfortune that sometimes occurs, but it 
had a natural quay quite near, where the Rancocus, her- 
self, could lie. There was fresh water in abundance, and 
an island of sufficient size to hold the largest whaling estab- 
lishment that ever existed. This island was incontinently 
named Blubber Island. The greatest disadvantage was the 
total absence of soil, and consequently of all sorts of herb- 
age ; but its surface was as smooth as that of an artificial 
quay, admitting of the rolling of casks with perfect ease. ; 
The governor no sooner ascertained the facilities of the 
place, which was far enough from the ordinary passage to 
and from the Peak to remove the nuisances, than he de- 
termined to make it his whaling haven. 

The Abraham was sent across to Rancocus Island for a 
load of lumber, and extensive sheds were erected, in time 
to receive the Henlopen, when she came in with a thousand 
barrels of oil on board, and towing in three whales that she 
had actually taken in the passage between Cape South and 
the Peak. By that time, the Rancocus had been moved, 
being stiff enough to be brought from the Reef to Blubber 
Island, under some of her lower sails. This movino: of 
vessels among the islands of the group was a very easy 
matter, so long as they were not to be carried to windward ; 
and a further acquaintance with the channels had let the 
mariners into the secret of turning up, against the trades 
and within the islands, by keeping in such reaches as en- 
abled them to go as near the wind as was necessary, while 
they were not compelled to go nearer than a craft could lie. 


THE CRATER. 


885 


Such was the commencement of a trade that was des- 
tined to be of the last importance to our colonists. The 
oil that was brought in, from this first cruise, a cruise that 
lasted less than two months, and including that taken by 
all the boats, amounted to two thousand barrels, quite fill- 
ing the lower hold of the Rancocus, and furnishing her 
with more than half of a full cargo. At the prices which 
then ruled in the markets of Europe and America, three 
: thousand five hundred barrels of spermaceti, with a due 
i proportion of head matter, was known to be worth near 
; an hundred thousand dollars ; and might be set down as 
' large a return for labor, as men could obtain under the 
j most advantageous circumstances. 

& 


i 


/ 


THE CRATER. 




CHAPTER XXV. 

The forest reels beneath the stroke 
Of sturdy woodman’s axe ; 

The earth receives the white man’s yoke, 

, ^ And pays her willing tax 

Of fruits, and flowers, and golden harvest fields, 

And all that nature to blithe labor yields. 

PaULDINO. I 

Notwithstanding the great success which attended the 
beginning of the whaling, it was six months before the 
Rancocus was loaded, '"and ready to sail for Hambinghy 
with her cargo. This time the ship went east, at once, f 
instead of sailing to the westward, as she had previously 
done — taking with her a crew composed partly of colonists 1 
and partly of Kannakas. Six boys, however, went in thej 
ship, the children of reputable settlers ; all of whom the® 
governor intended should be officers, hereafter, on board® 
of colony vessels. To prevent difficulties on the score off 
national character, on leaving America the last time, 
Saunders had cleared for the islands of the Pacific and a 
market ; meaning to cover his vessel, let her go where she 
might, by the latter reservation. This question of nation- 
ality offered a good deal of embarassment in the long run, 
and the council foresaw future embarrassments as con- 
nected with the subject ; but, every one of the colonists 
being of American birth, and America being then neutral, 
and all the American-built vessels having American papers, 
it was thought most prudent to let things take their natural 
course, under the existing arrangement, until something 
occurred to render a more decided policy advisable. 

As soon as the Rancocus got off, the Henlopen went 
out again, to cruise about two hundred leagues to wind- 
ward , while the inshore fishery was carried on by Betts, 
in the Martha, with great spirit and 'most extraordinary 



THE CRATER. 


387 


success. So alive did the people get to be to the profit 
aud sport of this sort of business, that boats were con- 
structed, and crews formed all over the colony, there being 
often as many as a dozen different parties out, taking 
whales near the coasts. The furor existed on the Peak, 
as well as in the low lands, . and Bridget and Anne could 
not but marvel that men would quit the delicious coolness, 
the beautiful groves, and all the fruits and bountiful prod- 
ucts of that most delightful plain, to go out on the ocean, 
in narrow quarters, and under a hot sun, to risk their lives 
in chase of the whale ! This did the colonists, neverthe- 
less, until the governor himself began to feel the necessity 
of striking a whale, if he would maintain his proper place 
in the public opinion. 

As respects the governor, and the other high function- 
aries of the colony, some indulgence was entertained ; it 
being the popular notion that men who lived so much 
within doors, and whose hands got to be so soft, were not 
exactly the sort of persons who would be most useful at 
the oar. Heaton, and the merchants, Pennock, and the 
two younger Woolstons, with the clergyman, were easily 
excused in the popular mind ; but the governor was known 
to be a prime seaman, and a silent expectation appeared to 
prevail, that some day he would be seen in the bow of a 
boat, lancing a whale. Before the first season was over, 
this expectation was fully realized; Governor Woolston 
heading no less than four of what were called the colony 
boats, or boats that belonged to the state, and fished as 
much for, honor as profit, taking a fine whale on each 
occasion. These exploits of the governor’s capped the 
climax, in the way of giving a tone to the public mind, on 
the subject of taking whales. No man could any longer 
doubt of its being honorable, as well as useful, and even 
the boys petitioned to be allowed to go out. The Kanna- 
kas, moi’e or less of whom were employed in each vessel, 
rose greatly in the public estimation, and no young man 
could expect to escape animadversion, unless he had been 
present at least once at the taking of a whale. Those wlio 
had struck or lanced a fish wei-e now held in a proper- 


THE CEATER. 


.,^88 

tiouate degree repute. It was, in fact, in this group 
that the custom originally obtained, which prohibited a 
young man from standing at the head of the dance who 
had not struck his fish ; and not at Nantucket, as has been 
erroneously supposed. 

In a community where such a spirit was awakened, it is | 
not surprising that great success atteiided the fisheries. 
The Henlopen did well, bringing in eight hundred barrels; 
but she found six hundred more in waiting for her, that 
had been taken by the in-shore fishermen ; some using the 
Abraham, some the Martha, some the Anne, and others 
again nothing but the boats, in which they pursued their 
game. In the latter cases, however, when a fish was. taken, 
one of the larger vessels was usually employed to take 
the creature into the Bight. In this way was the oil ob- 
tained, which went to make up a cargo for the Henlopen. 
The governor had his doubts about sending this brig on so 
distant a voyage, the vessel being so slow ; but there was 
no choice, since she must go, or the cargo must remain a | 
long time where it was. The brig was accordingly filled | 
up, taking in seventeen hundred barrels ; and she sailed 
for Hamburgh, under the command of a young man named 
Thomas. Walker remained behind, prefering to superin- ' 
tend the whaling affairs at home. 

So high did the fever run, by this time, that it was de- 
termined to build a couple of vessels, each to measure about 
a hundred and eighty tons, with the sole object of using ‘ 
thc'in to take the whale. Six months after laying their 
heels, these little brigs were launched ; and lucky it was I 
tha^ft the governor had ordered copper for a ship to be 
br-^ught out, since it now came handy for using on these 
Two craft. But, the whaling business had not been suffered 
to lag while the Jonas and the Dragon were on the stocks; 
the Anne, and the Martha, and the single boats, being out 
near half the time. Five hundred barrels were taken in 
this way ; and Betts, in particular, had made so much 
money, or, what was the same thing, had got so much oil, 
that he came one morning to his friend the governor, when 
the following interesting dialogue took place between them, 


THE CRA-rER. 


589 

ill the audience-chamber of the Colony House. It may as 
well be said hero, that the accommodations for the chief 
magistrate had been materially enlarged, and that he now- 
dwelt in a suite of apartments that would have been deemed 
respectable even in Philadelphia. Bridget had a taste for 
furniture, and the wood of Rancocus Island admitted of 
many articles being made that were really beautiful, and 
which might have adorned a palace. Fine mats had been 
brought from China, such as are, and long have been, in 
common use in America ; neat and quaint chairs and set- 
tees liad also been in the governor’s invoices, to say nothing 
of large quantities of fine and massive earthenware. In a 
word, the governor was getting to be ricli, and like all 
wealthy rnen, he had a disposition to possess, in a propor- 
tionate degree, the comforts and elegancies of civilized life. 
But to come to our dialogue — 

“Walk in. Captain Betts — walk in, sir, and do me the 
favor .to take a chair,” said the governor, motioning to his 
old friend to be seated. “ You are always welcome, here ; 
for I do not forget old times, I can assure you, my 
friend.” 

“ Thankee, governor ; thankee, with all my heart. I 
do find everything changed, nowadays, if the truth must 
be said, but yourself. To me, you be always, Mr. Mark, 
and Mr. Woolston, and we seem to sail along in company, 
much as we did the time you first went out a foremast-lad, 
and I teaclied you the difference between a flat-knot and a 
granny.” 

“ No, no. Bob, everything is not so much changed as 
you pretend — I am not changed, in the first place.” 

“ I confess it — you be the same, governor, blow high, 
or blow low.” 

“ Then Martha is not changed, or nothing worth men- 
tioning. A little more matronly, perhaps, and not quite 
as much of a girl as when you first made her acquaintance; 
but Martha, nevertheless. And, as for her heart, I ’ll an- 
swer for it, that is just the color it was at sixteen.” 

' “ Why, yes, governor ; ’tis much as you say. Marthy 

1 is now the mother of four children, and that confarms a 


890 


THE CRATER. 


woman’s appearance, depend on’t. But, Marthy is Mar- 
thy ; and, for that matter, Miss Bridget is Miss Bridget, 
as much as one pea is like another. Madam Woolston 
does full credit to the climate, governor, and looks more 
like eighteen than ever.” 

“ My wife enjoys excellent health, Betts ; and grateful 
am I to Grod that it is so. But I think all our women have 
a fresh and sea-air sort of look, a cheerful freshness about 
them, that I ascribe to the salt and the sea-breezes. Then 
we have mountain ajr, in addition, on the Peak ” 

“ Aye, aye, sir — I dare say you’ve got it right, as you 
do most matters. Well, governor, I don’t know which 
counts up the fastest in the colony, children or whales.” 

“ Both flourish,” answered Mark, smiling, “ as our re- 
ports show. Mr. Secretary tells me that there were, on the 
first of the last month, three hundred and eighteen children 
in the colony under the age of ten years ; of whom no less 
than one hundred and ninety-seven are born here — pure 
Craterinos, including your children and mine, Betts.” 

“ It ’s a fine beginning, governor — a most capital start ; 
and, though the young ’uns can’t do much at taking a 
whale, or securing the ile, just now, they’ll come on in 

their turns, and be useful when we’re in dock as hulks, 

>> 

Sir. 

“ Talking of oil, you must be getting rich. Captain 
Betts. I hear you got in another hundred-barrel gentle- 
man last week ! ” 

“ Times is altered with me, governor ; and times is al- 
tered with you, too, sir, since you and I rafted loam and 
sea-weed, to raise a few cucumbers, and squashes, and 
melons. Then^ we should have been as happy as princes 
to have had a good roof over our heads.” 

“ I trust we are both thankful, where thanks are due, for 
all this, Betts?” 

“ Why, yes, sir, I endivor so to be ; though men is des- 
perate apt to believe they desarve all they get but the, ill 
luck. I and Marthy try to think of what is all in all to us, 
and I believe Marthy does make out pretty well, in that 
partic'lar, accordin’- to Friends’ ways; though I am often 


THE CRATER. 301 

jammed in religion, and all for want of taking to it early, 
as I sometimes think, sir.” 

“ There is no doubt, Betts, that men grow in Christian 
character, as well as in evil ; and the most natural growth, 
in all things, is that of the young. A great deal is to be 
undone and unlearned, if we put off the important hour to 
a late period in life.” 

“ Well, as to unl’arnin’, I suppose a fellow that had as 
little edication as myself will have an easy time of it,” an- 
swered Betts, with perfect simplicity and good faith ; “ fpr 
most of my schoolin’ was drowned in salt water by the 
time I was twelve.” 

‘‘ I am glad of one thing,” put in the governor, half in 
a congratulating way, and half inquiringly ; “ and that is, 
that the Rev. Mr. Hornblower takes so well with the peo- 
ple. Everybody appears to be satisfied with his ministra- 
tions ; and I do not see that anyone is the worse for them, 
although he is an Episcopalian.” 

Betts twisted about on his chair, and seemed at first un- 
willing to answer ; but his natural frankness, and his long 
habits of intimacy and confidence with Mark Woolston, 
both as man and boy, forbade his attempting anything 
seriously in the way of concealment. 

“Well, governor, they do say 'that ‘many men, many 
minds,’ ” he replied after a brief pause ; “ and 1 suppose 
it’s as true about religion, as in a judgment of ships, or in 
a ch’ice of a wife. If all men took to the same woman, or 
all seamen shipped for the same craft, a troublesome house- 
hold, and a crowded and onhealthy vessel, would be the 
upshot on’t.” 

“We have a choice given us by Providence, both as to 
ships and as to wives. Captain Betts ; but no choice is 
allowed any of us in what relates to religion. 'In that, we 
are to mind the sailor’s maxim, ‘ to obey orders if we break 
owners.’ ” 

“ Little fear of ‘ breaking owners,’ I fancy, governor. 
But, the difficulty is to know what orders is. Now, Friends 
loesn’t hold, at all, to dressing and undressing in church 
lime; and 1 think, myself, books is out of place in praying 
to God.” 


892 


THE CRATER. 


“And is there much said among the people, Captain 
Bel.ts, about the parson’s gown and surplice, and about his 
reading his prayers, instead of writing them out, and getting 
them by heart ^ ” 

There was a little malice in the governor’s question, for 
he was too much behind the curtain to be the dupe of any 
pretending claims to sudden inspirations, and well knew 
that everj sect had its liturgy, though only half a dozen 
have the honesty to print them. The answer of his friend 
was, as usual, frank, and to the point. 

“ I cannot say but there is, Mr. Mark. As for the 
clothes, women will talk about them, as you well know, 
sir ; it being their natur’ to be dressing themselves out, so 
much. Then as to praying from the book, quite half of 
our people think it is not any better than no praying at all. 
A little worse, perhaps, if truth was spoken.” 

“I am sorry to hear this, Betts. From the manner 
in which they attend the services, I was in hopes that 
prejudices were abating, and that everybody was satis- 
fied.” 


“ I don’t think, governor, that there is any great danger 
of a mutiny ; though, many men, many minds, as I said 
before. But, my business here is forgotten all this time ; 
and I know it isn’t with your honor now as it used to be 
with us both, when we had nothing to think of but the 
means of getting away from this place, into some other 
that we fancied might be better. I wish you joy, sir, in 
having got the two new brigs into the water.” 

“ Thank you. Captain Betts. Does your present visit 
relate to either of those brigs ? ” 

“ Why, to come to the p’int, it does, sir. I’ve taken a 
fancy to the Dragon, and should like to buy her.” 

“ Buy her ! Have you any notion what such a vessel 
will cost, Betts ? ” 

“ Not a great way from eight thousand dollars, I should 
think, governor, now that the copper is on. Some things 
is charged high, in this part of the world, about a wessel, 
and other some isn’t. Take away the copper, and 1 should 
think a good deal less would buy either.” 


THE CRATER. 393 

“ And have you eight thousand dollars at command, my 
friend, with which to purchase the brig ? ” 

“ If ile is money, yes ; if ile isn’t money, no. I’ve got 
three hundred Ijarrels on hand, one hundred of which is 
head-matter.” 

“ I rejoice to hear this, Captain Betts, and the brig you 
shall have. I thought to have sold both to the merchants, 
for I did not suppose any one else, here, could purchase 
them ; but I would greatly prefer to see one of them in the 
hands of an old friend. You shall have the Dragon, Betts, 
since you like her.” 

“ Done and done between gentlemen, is enough, sir ; not 
that I set myself up for a gentleman, governor, but I’ve 
lived too long and too much in your respected society not 
to have Tam’d some of the ways. The brig’s mine, if ile 
will pay for her. And now, sir,, having completed the 
trade, I should like to know if your judgment and mine be 
the same. I say the Dragon will beat the Jonas half a 
knot, the best day the Jonas ever seed.” 

“ I do not know but you are right, Bob. In looking at 
the two craft, last evening, I gave the preference to the 
Dragon, though I kept my opinion to myself, lest I might 
mortify those who built the Jonas.” X 
' “ Well, sir. I’m better pleased to hear this, than to be 
able to pay for the brig ! It is something to a plain body 
like myself, to find his judgment upheld by them that know 
all about a matter.” 

In this friendly and perfectly confidential way did Mark 
Woolston still act with his old and long-tried friend, Rob- 
ert Betts. The Dragon was cheap at the money men- 
tioned, and the governor took all of the old seaman’s “ ile ” 
at the very top of the market. This purchase at once 
elevated Betts in the colony, to a rank but a little below 
that of the gentlemen,” if his modesty disposed him to 
decline being classed absolutely with them. What was 
more, it put him in the way of almost coining money. 
Yhe' brig he purchased turned out to be as fast as he ex- 
oected, and wha' was more, the character of a lucky vessel, 
which she got the very first cruise, never left her, and 


894 


THE CRATER. 


gave her commander and owner, at all times, a choice of 
hands. 

The governor sold the Jonas to the merchants, and took 
the INIartha off Betts’s hands, causing this latter craft to 
run regilarly, dnd at stated hours, from point to point 
among the islands, in the character of a packet. Twice 
a week she passed from the Reef to the Cove at the Peak, 
and once a fortnight she went to Rancocus Island. In 
addition to her other duties, this sloop now carried the 
mail. 

A post-office law was passed by the council, and was 
approved of by the governor. In that day, and in a com- 
munity so simple and practical, new-fangled theories con- 
cerning human rights were not allow^ed to interfere with 
regulations that were obviously necessary to the comfort 
and convenience of the public. 

Fortunately, there was yet no newspaper, a species of 
luxury, which, like the gallows, comes in only as society 
advances to the corrupt condition ; or which, if it happen 
to precede it a little, is very certain soon to conduct it 
tliere. If every institution became no more than what it 
was designed to be, by those who originally framed it, the 
state of man on earth would be very different from what it 
is. The unchecked means of publicity, out of all question, 
are indispensable to the circulation of truths ; and it is 
equally certain that the unrestrained means of publicity - 
are equally favorable to the circulation of lies. If we 
cannot get- along safely without the possession of one of 
these advantages, neither can we get along very safely 
while existing under the daily, hourly, increasing influence 
of the other — call it what you will. If truth is all-im- 
portant, in one sense, falsehood is all-important too, in a 
contrary sense. 

Had there been a newspaper at the Crater, under the 
control of some philosopher, who had neither native talent, 
nor its substitute education, but who had beeli struck out 
of a printer’s devil by the rap of a composing-stick, as ^ 
Minerva is reported to have been struck, full-grown, out • 
of Jupiter’s head by the hammer of Vulcan, it is probable 


THE CRATER. 


395 


that the wiseacre might have discovered that it was an 
inexcusable interference witli the rights of the colonists, 
to enact that no one should carry letters for hire, but those 
connected with the regular post-office. But, no such per- 
son existing, the public mind was left to the enjoyment of 
its common-sense ignorance, which remained satisfied with 
the fact that, though it might be possible to get a letter 
carried from the Reef to the Cove, between which places 
the communications were constant and regular, for half 
the money charged by the office, yet it was not possible 
to ' get letters carried beween some of the other points 
in the colony for twenty times the regulated postage. It 
is probable, therefore, that the people of the Crater and 
the Peak felt, that in supporting a general system, which 
embraced the good of all, they did more towards extending 
civilization, than if they killed the hen, at once, in order 
to come at the depository of the golden eggs, in the shortest 
way. 

In the Middle Ages, he who wished to send a missive, 
was compelled, more than half the time, to be at the ex- 
pense of a special messenger. The butchers, and a class 
of ti-aders that corresponds, in part, to the modern English 
traveler, took charge of letters, on the glorious Free 
Trade principle ; and sometimes public establishments hired 
messengers to go back and forth, for their own purposes. 
Then, the governments, perceiving the utility of such ar- 
rangements, imperfect as they were, had a sort of post- 
offices for their use, which have reached down to our own 
times, in the shape of government messengers. There 
can be little doubt that the man who found he could get a 
letter safely and promptly conveyed five hundred miles for 
a crown, after having been obliged previously to pay 
twenty for the same service, felt that he was the obliged 
party, and never fancied for a moment, that, in virtue of 
his 'patronage^ he was entitled to give himself airs, and to 
stand upon his natural right to have a post-office of his 
own, at the reduced price. But, indulgence creates wan- 
tonness, and the very men who receive the highest favors 
from the post-offices of this country, in which a letter h 


390 


THE CRATER. 


carried five-and-twenty Imndied miles for ten cents, pene- 
trating, through some fourteen or fifteen thousand offic^es, 
into every cranny of a region large as half Europe, kicks' 
and grows restive because he has not the liberty of doing 
a few favored portions of the vast enterprise for himself ; 
while he imposes on the public the office of doing that 
which is laborious and unprofitable ! Such is man ; such 
did he become when he fell from his first estate ; and such 
is he likely to continue to be until some far better panacea 
shall be discovered for his selfishness and cupidity, than 
what is called “ self-government.” 

But the Craterinos were thankful when they found 
that the Martha was set to running regularly, from place 
to place, carrying passengers and the mails. The two 
businesses were blended together for the sake of economy, 
and at the end of a twelve-month it was found that the 
colony had nothing extra to pay. On the whole the en- 
terprise may be said to have succeeded ; and as practice 
usually improves all such matters, in a few months it was 
ascertained that another very important step had been 
taken on the high-road of civilization. Certainly the col- 
onists could not be called a letter-writing people, considered 
as a whole, but the facilities offered a temptation to im- 
prove, and, in time, the character of the entire community 
received a beneficial impression from the introduction of 
the mails. 

It was not long after the two brigs were sold, and just 
as the Martha came into government possession, that all 
the principal functionaries made a tour of the whole set- 
tlements, using the sloop for that purpose. One of the 
objects was to obtain statistical facts; though personal ob- 
servation, with a view to future laws, was the principal 
motive. The governor, secretary, attorney-general, and 
most of the council were along ; and pleasure and busi- 
ness being thus united, their wives were also of the party. 
There being no necessity for remaining in the Martha at 
night, that vessel was found amply sufficient for all other 
purposes, though the “ progress ” occupied fully a fortnight. 
As a brief relation of its details will give the reader a full 


THE CRATER. 


397 


ideji of the present state of the “country,” as the colo- 
■ nists now began to call their territories, we propose to ac- 
company the travellers, day by day, and to give some short 
account of what they saw, and of what they did. The 
Martha sailed from the cove about eight in the morning, 
having on board seventeen passengers, in addition to two 
or three w'ho were going over to Rancocus Island on their 
regular business. The sloop did not sail, however, directly 
for the last-named island, but made towards the volcano, 
which had of late ceased to be as active as formerly, and 
into the condition of which it was now deemed important 
to make some inquiries. The Martha was a very fast ves- 
sel, and was soon quietly anchored in a small bay, on the 
leeward side of the island, where landing was not only 
practicable but easy. For the first time since its existence 
the crater was ascended. All the gentlemen went up, and 
Heaton took its measurement by means of instruments. 
The accumulation of materials, principally ashes and 
scoriae, though lava had begun to appear in one or two 
small streams, had been very great since the governor’s 
first visit to the spot. The island now measured about two 
miles in diameter, and being nearly round, might be said 
to be somewhere near six in circumference. The crater 
itself was fully half a mile in diameter, and, at that mo- 
ment, was quite a thousand feet in height above the sea. 
In the centre of this vast valley, were three smaller cra- 
ters or chimneys, which served as outlets to the fires be- 
neath. A plain had formed within the crater, some four 
hundred feet below its summit, and it already began to 
assume that sulphur-tinged and unearthly hue, that is so 
common in and about active volcanoes. Occasionally, a 
deep roaring would be succeeded by a hissing sound, not 
unlike that produced by a sudden escape of steam from a 
boiler, and then a report would follow, accompanied by 
smoke and stones ; some of the latter of which were pro- 
jected several hundred yards into the air, and fell on the 
plain of the crater. But these explosions were not one 
tenth as frequent as formerly. 

The result of all the observations was to create an im* 


898 


THE CRATER. 


pression that this outlet to the fires beneath was approach- 
ing a period when it would becorce inactive, and when, in- 
deed, some o', her outlet for the pent forces might be made. 
After passing half a day on and around the volcano, even 
Bridget and Anne mustered courage and strength to as- 
cend it, supported by the willing arms of their husbands. 
The females were rewarded for their trouble, though both 
declared that they should ever feel a most profound respect 
for the place after this near view of its terrors as well as 
of its beauties. 

On quitting the volcano, the Martha proceeded directly 
to leeward, reaching Rancocus Island about sunset. Here 
the sloop anchored in the customary haven, and everybody 
but her crew landed. The fort was still kept up at this 
place, on account of the small number of the persons who 
dwelt there, though little apprehension now existed of a 
visit from the natives ; with the exception of the Kanna- 
kas, who went back and forth constantly on board the dif- 
ferent craft in which they were employed, not a native had 
been near either island of the colony since the public visit 
of young Ooroony, on the occasion of bringing over labor- 
ers to help to form the grounds of Colony blouse. The 
number and force of the different vessels would seem to 
have permanently settled the question of ascendency in 
those seas, and no one any longer believed it was a point 
to be controverted. 

The population on Rancocus Island did not amount to 
more than fifty souls, and these included women and chil- 
dren. Of the latter, however, there was not yet many; 
though five or six were born annually, and scarcely one 
died. The men kept the mill going, cutting lumber of all 
sorts ; and they made both bricks and lime, in sufficient 
quantities to supply the wants of the two other islands. 
At first, it had been found necessary to keep a greater force 
there, but, long before the moment of which we are writ- 
ing, the people had all got into their regular dwellings, and 
the materials now required for building were merely such 
as were used in additions, or new constructions. The last, 
however, kept the men quite actively employed ; but, as 


THE CRATER. 


399 


/ 

they got well paid for their work everybody seemed con- 
tented. The Martha never arrived without bringing over 
quantities of fruits, as well as vegetables, the Raiicocus- 
ers, lumber-men like, paying but little attention to garden- 
ing or husbandry. The island had its productions, and 
there was available land enough, perhaps, to support 
a few thousand people, but, after the group and the Peak, 
the place seemed so little tempting to the farmers, that no 
one yet thought of using it for the ordinary means of sup- 
porting life. The “ visitors,” as the party called them- 
selves, had an inquiry made into the state of the animals 
that had been turned loose, on the pastures and mountain- 
sides of the island, to seek their own living. The hogs, 
as usual, had increased largely ; it was supposed there 
mifi^ht be near two hundred of these animals, near half of 
which, however, were still grunters. The laborers occa- 
sionally killed one, but the number grew so fast that it 
was foreseen it would be necessary to have an annual 
hunt, in order to keep it down. The goats did particu- 
larly well, though they remained so much on the highest 
peaks as to be seldom approached by any of the men. 
The cow had also increased her progeny, there being now 
no less than' four younger animals, all of whom yielded 
milk to the people. The poultry flourished here, as it did 
in all that region, the great abundance of fruit, worms, 
insects, etc., rendering it unnecessary to feed them, though 
Indian corn was almost to be had for the asking, through- 
out all the islands. This grain was rarely harvested, ex- 
cept as it was wanted, and the hogs that were fattened 
were usually turned in upon it in the fields. 

It may be well to say, that practice and experience had 
taught the colonists something in the way of fattening 
their pork. The animals were kept in the group untii 
they were about eighteen months old, when they were 
regularly transported to the cove, in large droves, and 
made to ascend the steps, passing the last two months of 
their lives amid the delightful groves of the Peak. Here 
they had acorns in abundance, though their principal food 
was Indian corn, being regularly attended by Kannakas 


400 


THE CRATER. 


who had been trained to the business. At killing-time, 
each man either came himself, or sent some one to claim 
his hogs ; all of which were slaughtered on the Peak, and 
carried away in the form of pork. The effect of this 
change was to make’ much finer meat, by giving the ani- 
mals a cooler atmosphere and purer food. 

From Rancocus Island the Martha sailed for the group, 
which was visited and inspected in all its settlements by 
the governor and council. The policy adopted by the gov- 
ernment of the colony was very much unlike that resorted 
to in America, in connection with the extension of the 
settlements. Here a vast extent of surface is loosely over- 
run, rendering the progress of civilization rapid, but very 
imperfect. "Were the people of the United States confined 
to one half the territory they now occupy, there can be 
little question that they would be happier, more powerful, 
more civilized, and less rude in manners and feelings, al- 
though it may be high treason to insinuate that they ai-e 
not all, men, women and children, already at the ne plus 
ultra of each of those attainments. But there is a just me- 
dium in the density of human population, as well as in other 
things ; and that has not yet been reached, perhaps, even 
im the most thickly peopled of any one of the Old Thir- 
teen. Now, Mark Woolstoa had seen enough of the fruits 
of a concentrated physical force, in Europe, to comprehend 
their value ; and he early set his face against the purely 
skimming process. He was resolved that the settlements 
should not , extend faster than was necessary, and that as 
much of civilization should go wfith them as was attainable. 
In consequence of this policy, the country soon obtained a 
polished aspect, as far as the settlements reached. There 
were four or five distinct points that formed exceptions to 
this rule, it having been considered convenient to make 
establishments there, principally on account of the whalers. 
One, and the largest of these isolated settlements, was in 
the Whaling Bight, quite near to Blubber Island, where a 
village had sprung up, containing the houses and shops of 
coopers, rope-makers, boat-builders, carpenters, blacksmiths, 
etc. ; men employed in making casks, whaling gear, and 


tup: crater. 


401 


boats. There also were the dwellings of three or four 
masters and mates of vessels, as well as of sundry boat- 
Bteerers. In the whole, there might have been fifty habi- 
tations at this particular point ; of which about two thirds 
were in a straggling village, while the remainder composed 
so many farm-houses. Everything at this place denoted 
activity and a prosperous business ; the merchants taking 
the oil as fast as it was ready, and returning for it, hoops, 
iron in bars, hemp and such other articles as were wanted 
for the trade. 

By this time, the Kancocus had returned, and had dis- 
charged her inward-bound cargo at the Reef, bringing ex- 
cellent returns for the oils sent to Hamburgh. She now 
lay in Whaling Bight, being about to load anew with oil 
that had been taken during her absence. Saunders was 
as busy as a bee ; and Mrs. Saunders, who had come across 
from her own residence on the Peak, in order to remain as 
long as possible with her husband, was as happy as the 
day was long ; seeming never to tire of exhibiting her pres- 
ents to the other women at the Bight. 

At the Reef itself, an exceedingly well-built little town 
was springing up. Since the removal of the whaling oper- 
ations to the Bight, all nuisances were abated, and the 
streets, quays, and public walks were as neat as could be 
desired. The trees had grown wonderfully, and the gar- 
dens appeared as verdant and fresh as if they had a hundred 
feet of loam beneath them, instead of resting on solid lava, 
as was the fact. These gardens had increased in numbers 
and extent, so that the whole town was embedded in ver- 
dure and young trees. That spot, on which the sun had 
once beaten so fiercely as to render it often too hot to be 
supported by the naked foot, was now verdant, cool, and 
refreshing, equally to the eye and to the feelings. The 
streets were narrow, as is desirable in warm climates — • 
thus creating shade, as well 'as increasing the draughts of 
I air through them ; it being in the rear that the houses ob- 
tained space for ventilation as well as for vegetation. The 
whole number of dwellings on the Reef now amounted to 
sixty-four; while the warehouses, public buildings, ships. 


402 


THE CRATER. 


'offices and otlier constructions, brought the number of the 
roofs up to one hundred. These buildings, Colony House 
and the warehouses excepted, were not very large certainly, 
but they were of respectable dimensions, and neat and well 
put together. Colony House was large, as has been men- 
tioned ; and though plain, certain ornaments had been com- 
pleted, which contributed much to its appearance. Every 
building, without exception, had some sort of veranda to 
it ; and as most of these additions were now embowered in 
shrubs or vines, they formed delightful places of retreat 
during the heat of the day. 

By a very simple process, water was pumped up from 
the largest spring by means of wind-sails, and conveyed in 
wooden logs to every building in the place. The logs were 
laid through the gardens, for the double purpose of getting 
soil to cover them, and to put them out of the way. With- 
out the town, a regular system had been adopted, by which 
to continue to increase the soil. The rock was blown out, 
as stone was wanted, leaving, however, a quay around the 
margin of the island. As soon as low enough, the cavities 
became the receptacles of everything that could contribute 
to form soil ; and one day in each month was set apart for 
a “bee;” during which little was done but to transport 
earth from Loam Island, which was far from being ex- 
hausted yet, or even leveled, and scattering it on those 
hollow spots. In this manner, a considerable extent of 
surface, nearest of the town, had already been covered, and 
seeded, and planted, so that it was now possible to walk 
from the town to the crater, a distance of a quarter of a 
mile, and be the whole time amid flowering shrubs, young 
trees and rich grasses ! 

As for the crater itself, it was now quite a gem in the 
way of vegetation. Its cocoa-nut trees bore profusely ; and 
its figs, oranges, limes, shaddocks, etc., etc., were not only 
abundant, but rich and large. The Summit was in spots 
covered with delicious groves, and the openings were of as 
dark a verdure, the year round, as if the place lay twenty 
degrees farther from the equator than was actually the 
case. Here Kitty, followed by a flock of descendants, wag 


THE CRATER. 


403 


permitted still to rove at large, the governor deeming hei 
rights in the place equal to his own. The plain of the 
crater was mostly under tillage, being used as a common 
garden for all who dwelt in the town. Each person was 
taxed so many , days, in work, or in money, agreeably to a 
village ordinance, and by such means was the spot tilled ; 
in return, each person, according to a scale that was regu- 
lated by the amount of the contribution, was allowed to 
come or send daily, and dig and carry away a stated quan- 
tity of fruits and vegetables. All this was strictly regu- 
lated by a town law, and the gardener had charge of the 
execution of the ordinance ; but the governor had privately 
intimated to him that there w'as no necessity for his being 
very particular, so long as the people were so few, and the 
products so abundant. The entire population of the Reef 
proper amounted, at this visitation, to just three hundred 
and twenty-six persons, of whom near a hundred were 
under twelve years of age. This, however, was exclusively 
of Kannakas, but included the absent seamen, whose fami- 
lies dwelt there permanently. 

The settlement at Dunks’s Cove has been mentioned, and 
nothing need be said of it, beyond the fact that its agri- 
culture had improved and been extended, its trees had 
grown, and its population increased. There was another 
similar settlement of East Cove — or Bay would be the 
better name — which was at the place were Mark AYoolston 
had found his way out to sea, by passing through a narrow 
and half-concealed inlet. This entrance to the group was 
now much used by the whalers, who fell in with a great 
many fish in the offing, and who found it very convenient 
to tow them into this large basin, and cut them up. Thence 
the blubber was sent down in lighters to AVhaling Bight, to 
be tried out. This arrangement saved a tow of some five- 
and-twenty miles,- and often prevented a loss of the fish, as 
sometimes occurred in the outside passage, by having it 
blown on an iron-bound coast. In consequence of these 
uses of the place, a settlement had grown up nenr it, and 
it already began to look like a spot to be civilized. As 
yet, however, it was the least advanced of all the settle- 
ments in the group. 


404 


THE CRATER. 


At the West Bay, there was a sort of naval station and 
look-out port, to watch the people of the neighboring isl- 
ands. The improvements did not amount to much, how- 
ever, being limited to one farm, a small battery that com- 
manded the roads, and a fortified house, which was also a 
tavern. 

The agricultural, or strictly rural population of the group, 
were seated along the different channels nearest to the 
Reef. Some attention had been paid, in the choice, to the 
condition of the soil ; but, on the whole, few unoccupied' 
spots could now be found within a league of the Reef, and 
on any of the principal passages that communicated with 
the different islands. There were foot-paths, which might 
be used by horses, leading from farm to farm, along the 
margins of the channels ; but the channels themselves were 
the ordinary means of communicating between neighbors. 
Boats of all sorts abounded, and were constantly passing 
and repassing. Here, as elsewhere, the vegetation was 
luxuriant and marvelous. Trees were to be seen around 
the houses, that elsewhere might have required three times 
the number of years that these had existed, to attain the 
same height. 

The visitation terminated at the Peak. This place, so 
aptly likened to the garden of Eden, and frequently so 
called, could receive very little addition to its picturesque 
beauties from the hand of man. Parts of it were culti- 
vated, it is true ; enough to supply its population (rather 
more than three hundred souls) with food ; but much the 
greater portion of its surface was in pasture. The build- 
ings were principally of stones quarried out of the cliffs, 
and were cool as well as solid edifices. They were low, 
however, and of no great size on the groipnd. At the gov- 
ernor’s farm, his private property, there was a dwelling of 
some pretension ; low, like all the rest, but of considerable 
extent. Here Bridget now passed much of her time ; for 
here it was thought best to keep the children. So cool and 
salubrious was tlie air on the Peak, that two schools were 
formed here ; and a large portion of the children of the 
colony, of a suitable age, were kept in them constantly. 


THE CRATER. 


405 


The governor encouraged this plan, not only on account 
of the health of the children, but because great care was 
taken to teach nothing but what the children ought to 
learn. The art of- reading may be made an instrument of 
evil, as well as of good ; and if a people imbibe false prin- 
ciples — if they are taught, for instance, that this or that 
religious sect should be tolerated, or the reverse, because it 
was most or least in conformity with certain political insti- 
tutions, thus rendering an institution of God’s subservient 
to the institutions of men, instead of making the last sub- 
servient to the first — why, the less they know of letters, the 
better. Everything false was carefully avoided, and, with 
no great pretensions in the way of acquisitions, the schools 
of the Peak were made to be useful, and at least innocent. 
One thing the governor strictly enjoined ; and that was, to 
teach these young creatures that they were fallible beings, 
carefully avoiding the modern fallacy of supposing that an 
infallible whole could be formed of fallible parts. 

Such is an outline of the condition of the colony at the 
period which we have now reached. Everything appeared 
to be going on well. The Henlopen arrived, discharged, 
loaded, and went out again, carrying with her the last bar- 
rel of oil in the Bight. The whalers had a jubilee, for 
their adventures made large returns ; and the business was , 
carried on with renewed spirit. In a word, the colony had 
reached a point where every interest was said to be pros- 
perous — a state of things with communities, as with indi- 
viduals, when they are, perhaps, in the greatest danger of 
meeting with reverses, by means of their own abuses. 


406 


THE CRATER. 


CHAPTER XXVL 

Cruel of heart, and strong of arm, 

Proud in his sport, and keen for spoil, 

He little reck’d of good or harm, 

Fierce both in mirth and toil; 

Yet like a dog could fawn, if need there were; 

Speak mildly when he would, or look in fear. 

' Dana. 

After the visitation, the governor passed a week it the 
Peak, with Bridget and his children. It was the habit of 
the wife to divide her time between the two dwellings ; 
though Mark was so necessary to her as a companion, in- 
tellectually, and she was so necessary to Mark, for the 
same reason, that they were never very long separated. 
Bridget was all heart, and she had the sweetest temper 
imaginable ; two qualities that endeared her to her hus- 
band, far more than her beauty. Her wishes were centi-ed 
in her little family, though her kindness and benevolence ^ 
could extend themsels^es to all around her. Anne she loved 
as a sister and as a friend ; but it would not have been 
impossible for Bridget to be happy, had her fortune been 
cast on the Reef, with no one else but Mark and her two j 
little ones. 

The Peak, proper, had got to be a sort of public prom- ' 
enade for all who dwelt near it. Here the governor, in I 
particular, was much accustomed to walk, early in the day, j 
before the sun got to be too warm, and to look out upon I 
the ocean as he pondered on his several duties. The spot j 
had always been pleasant, on account of the beauty and ! 
extent of the view; but a new interest was given to it since 
the commencement of the whaling operations in the neigh- 
borhood. Often, had Bridget and Anne gone there to see 
a whale taken ; it being no uncommon thing for one of the j 
boys to come shouting down from the Peak, with the cry'i 


THE CRATER. 


407 


of A fish — a fish ! ” It was by no means a rare occurrence 
for the shore-boats to take wliales immediately beneath the 
cliffs, and the vessels could frequently be seen to windwartl, 
working up to their game. All this movement gave life 
and variety to the scene, and contributed largely to the 
spot’s becoming a favorite place of resort. The very 
morning of the day that he intended to cross over to the 
Eeef, on his return from the “ progress,” the governor and 
his wife ascended to the Peak just as the sun was rising. 
The morning was perfectly lovely ; and never had the 
hearts of our married couple expanded more in love to their 
fellows, or been more profoundly filled with gratitude to 
God for all his goodness to them, than at that moment. 
Young Mark held by his mother’s hand, while the father 
led his little daughter. This was the way they were accus- 
tomed to divide themselves in their daily excursions, it 
probably appearing to each parent that the child thus led 
was a miniature image of the other. On that morning, the 
governor and Bridget were talking of the bounties that 
Providence had bestowed on them, and of the numberless 
delights of their situation. Abundance reigned on every 
side ; in addition to the productions of the island, in them- 
selves so ample and generous, commerce had brought its 
acquisitions, and, as yet, trade occupied the place a wise 
discrimination would give it. All such interests are excel- 
lent as incidents in the great scheme of human happiness ; 
but woe betide the people among whom they get fo be 
principals ! As the man who lives only to accumulate, is 
certain to have all his nobler and better feelings blunted 
by the grasping of cupidity, and to lose sight of the great 
objects of his existence, so do whole communities degenerate 
into masses of corruption, venality, and cupidity, wheA 
they set up the idol of commerce to worship in lieu of the 
ever-living God. So far from denoting a healthful pros- 
perity, as is too apt to be supposed, no worse signs of the 
condition of a people can be given, than when all other in- 
terests are made to yield to those of the mere money-get- 
ting sort. Among our colonists, as yet, commerce occu- 
pied its proper place; it was only an incident in their state 


408 


THE CRATER. 


of society, and it was so regarded. Men did not soarcli 
for every means of increasing it, whether its fruits were 
wanted or not, or live in a constant fever about its results. 
The articles brought in were all necessary to the comfort 
and civilization of the settlements, and those taken away 
were obtained by means of a healthful industry. 

As they ascended the height, following an easy path that 
led to the Summit, the governor and his wife conversed 
about the late visitation, and of what each had seen that 
was striking and worthy of comment. Mark had a coun- 
cil to consult,'in matters of state, but most did he love to 
compare opinions with the sweet matronly young creature 
at his side. Bridget was so true in all her feelings, so just 
in her inferences, and so kindly disposed, that a better 
counselor could not have been found at the elbow of one 
intrusted with power. 

“ I am more uneasy on the subject of religion than on 
any other,” observed the governor, as he helped his little 
companion up a difficult part of the ascent. “ While out, 

I took great pains to sound the people on the subject, and 
I found a much greater variety of opinions, or rather of 
feelings, among them than I could have believed possible, 
after the quiet time we have hitherto had.” 

“ After all, i-eligion is, and ought to be, more a matter 
of feeling, than of reason, Mark.” 

“ That is true, in one sense, certainly ; but it should be 
feeling subject to prudence and discretion.” 

“ Everything should be subject to those two qualities, 
though so very few are. I have all along known that the 
ministrations of Mr. Hornblower were only tolerated by a 
good number of our people. You, as an Episcopalian, have 
not been so much in the way of observing this ; for others 
have been guarded before you ; but my family is known 
not to have been of that sect, and I have been treated more 
frankly.” 

“ And you have not let me know this important fact, ■ 
Bridget ! ” said the governor, a little reproachfully. 

“ Why should I have added to your other cares, by > 
heaping this on your shoulder, dear Mark ? The tiling'^ 


THE CRATER. 


409 


could not easily be prevented ; though I may as well tell 
you, now, what cannot much longer be kept a secret — the 
Herd open will bring a Methodist and a Presbyterian cler- 
gyman in her, this voyage, if any be found willing to emi- 
grate ; and I have heard, lately, that Friends expect a 
preacher.” 

“ The law against the admission of an immigrant, with- 
out the consent of the governor and council, is very clear 
and precise,” answered the husband, looking grave. 

“ That may be true, my love, but it would hardly do to 
tell the people they are not to worship God in the manner 
that may best satisfy their own consciences.” 

“It is extraordinary that, as there is but one God, and 
one Saviour, there should be more than one mode of wor- 
shiping them ! ” 

“ Not at all extraordinary, my dear Mark, when you 
come to consider the great diversity of opinion which exists 
among men, in other matters. But Mr. Hornblower has a 
fault, which is a very great fault, in one situated as he is, 
without a competitor in the field. He lays too much stress 
on his particular mission ; talking too much, and preaching 
too much of his apostolic authority as a divine.” 

“Men should never blink the truth, Bridget; 'and least 
of all, in a matter as grave as religion.” 

“ Quite right, Mark, when it is necessary to say any- 
thing on the subject, at all. But, after all, the apostolic 
succession is but a means^ and if the end be attainable 
without dwelling on these means, it seems to me to be 
better not to conflict with the prejudices of those we wish 
to influence. Remember, that there is not fifty real 
Episcopalians in all this colony, where there is only one 
clergyman, and he of that sect.” 

“ Very true ; but Mr. Hornblower naturally wishes to 
make them all churchmen.” 

“ It really seems to me, that he ought to be content with 
making them all Christians.” 

“ Perhaps he thinks the two identical — necessary to 
each other,” added the governor, smiling on his charming 
young wife, who, in^ her own person, had quietly consented 


410 


THE CRATER. 


to the priestly control of her husband’s clergyman, though 
but half converted to the peculiar distinctions of his sect, I 
herself. I 

“ He should remember, more especially in his situation, 
that others may not be of the same way of thinking. Very 
few persons, I believe, inquire into the reasons of what they 
have been taught on the subject of religion, but take things 
as they find them.” 

“ And here they find an Episcopalian, and they ought to 
receive him confidingly.” 

“ That might do with children, but most of our people 
came here with their opinions formed. I wish Mr. Horn- 
blower were less set in his opinions, for I am content to be 
an Episcopalian, with you, my dear husband ; certain, if the 
authority be not absolutely necessary, it can, at least, do 
no harm.” 

This ended the conversation at that time, for just then 
the party reached the Peak. Little, however, did the gov- 
ernor, or his pretty wife, imagine how much the future 
was connected with the interest of which they had just 
been speaking, or dream of the form in which the serpent 
of old was about to visit, this PMen of modern times. But 
occurrences of another character almost immediately at- 
tracted their attention, and absorbed all the care and energy 
of the colony for some time. Scarcely was the party on the 
Peak, when the keen, lively eyes of the younger Bridget 
caught sight of a strange sail ; and, presently, another and 
another came into view. In a word, no less than three 
vessels were in sight, the first that had ever been seen in 
those seas, with the exception of the regular and well- 
known craft of the colony. These strangers were a ship 
and two brigs ; evidently vessels of some size, particularly 
the first; and they were consorts, keeping in company, 
and sailing in a sort of line, which would seem to denote 
more of order and concert than it was usual to find among 
merchantmen. They were all on a wind, standing to the 
southward and eastward, and were now, when first seen, 
fairly within the strait between the Peak and the group, 
unquestionably in full sight of both, and distant from each 


THE CRATER. 


4n 

some five or six leagues. With the wind as it was, nothing 
would have been easier for them all, than to fetch far 
enough to windward to pass directly beneatii the western 
cliffs, and, consequently, directly in front of the cove. 

Luckily, there were several lads on the Peak, early as 
was the hour, who had ascended in quest of the berries of 
certain plants that flourished there. The governor in- 
stantly dispatched one of these lads, with a note to Hea- 
ton, written in pencil, in which he desired that functionary 
to send a messenger down to the cove, to prevent any of 
the fishermen from going out ; it being the practice of 
many of the boys to fish in the shade of the cliffs, to lee- 
ward, ere the sun rose high enough to make the heat op- 
pressive. Hitherto, the existence of the cove, as it was 
believed, remained unknown even to the Kannakas, and a 
stringent order existed, that no boat should ever enter it 
so long as craft was in sight, which might have any of 
those men on board it. Indeed, the whole Peak was just 
as much a place of mystery, to all but the colonists, as it 
was the day when Waally and his followers were driven 
away by their superstitious dread. 

Having taken this precaution, and kept the other lads to 
send down with any farther message he might deem neces- 
sary, the governor now gave all his attention to the stran- 
gers. A couple of glasses were always kept on the Peak, 
and the best of these was soon in his hand, and leveled at 
the ship. Bridget stood at her husband’s side, eager to 
hear his opinion, but waiting with woman’s patience for 
the moment it might be given with safety. At length that 
instant came, and the half-terrified wife questioned the hus- 
band on the subject of his discoveries. 

“ What is it, Mark ? ” said Bridget, almost afraid of the 
answer she was so desirous of obtaining. “ Is it the Ran- 
cocus ? ” 

“ If the Rancocus, love, be certain she would not be 
coming hither. The ship is of some size, and appears to 
be armed ; though I cannot make out her nation.” 

“ It is not surprising that she should be armed, Mark. 
You know that the papers Caj)tain Saunders brought us 
were filled with accounts of battles fought in Lurope. 


412 


THE CRATER. 


“ It is very true that the whole world is in arms, though 
that doe^ not explain the singular appearance of these 
three vessels, in this remote corner of the earth. It is 
possible they may be discovery ships, for wars do not always 
put a stop to such enterprises. They appear to be steer- 
ing for the Peak, which is some proof that they do not 
know of tlie existence of the settlements in the group. 
There they might anchor ; but here, they cannot without 
entering the cove, of which they can know nothing.” 

“ If discovery vessels, would they not naturally come 
first to the Peak, as tlie most striking object ? ” 

“ In that you are probably right, Bridget, though I think 
the commodore would be apt to divide his force, having 
three ships, and send one, at least, towards the group, even 
if lie came hither with the others. No nation but Eng- 
land, however, would be likely to have vessels of that char- 
acter out, in such a war, and these do not look like Eng- 
lish craft, at all. Besides, we should have heard something 
of such an expedition, by means of the papers, were there 
one out. It would be bad enough to be visited by explor- 
ers ; yet I fear these are worse than explorers.” 

Bridget very well understood her husband’s apprehen- 
sions on the subject of exploring parties. As yet, the 
colony had got on very well, without having the question 
of nationality called into the account ; but it had now be- 
come so far important, as, in a small way, to be a nursery 
for seamen ; and there was much reason to fear that the 
ruthless policy of the strong would, in the event of a dis- 
covery, make it share the usual fortunes of the weak. It 
was on account of this dread of foreign interference, that 
so much pains had been taken to conceal the history and 
stafe of the little community, the strongest inducements 
being placed before all the seamen who went to Europe, to 
be discreet and silent. As for the Kannakas, they did not 
know enough to be very dangerous, and could not, at all, 
give any accurate idea of the position of the islands, had 
they been better acquainted than they were with their rela- 
tion to other communities, and desirous of betraying them. 

The governor now sent another note down to Heaton, 


THE CRATER. 


413 


witli a request that orders might be forwarded along the 
cliffs, for every one to keep out of sight ; as well as direc- 
tions that care should be taken not to let any smoke even 
be seen to rise from the plain. This message was speedily 
followed by another, directing that all the men should be 
assembled and the usual preparations made for defense. 
He also asked if it were not possible to send a whale-boat 
out, by keeping immediately under the cliffs, and going 
well to windward, in such a manner as to get a communi- 
cation across to the Reef, in order to put the people 
on their guard in that quarter. One or two whale-boats 
were always in the cove, and there were several crews of 
capital oarsmen among the people of the Peak. If such a 
boat could be prepared, it was to be held in readiness, as 
the governor himself might deem it expedient to cross the 
strait. 

All this time the strange vessels were not idle, but drew 
nearer to the Peak, at a swift rate of sailing. It was not 
usual for mere merchantmen to be as weatherly, or to 
make as much way through the water, as did all these 
craft. On account of the great elevation at which the 
governor stood, they appeared small, but he was too much 
accustomed to his situation not to know how to make 
the necessary allowances. After examining her well, 
when she was within a league of the cliffs, he came to the 
opinion that the ship was a vessel of about six hundred 
tons, and that she was both armed and strongly manned. 
So far as he could judge, by the bird’s-eye view he got, he 
fancied she was even frigate-built, and had a regular gun- 
deck. In that age such craft were very common, sloops 
of war having that construction quite as often as that of 
the more modern deep-waisted vessel. As for the brigs, 
they were much smaller than their consort, being of less 
than two hundred tons each, apparently, but also armed 
and strongly manned. The armaments were now easily to 
be seen, as indeed were the crews, each and all the vessels 
showing a great many men aloft, to shorten sail as they 
drew nearer to the island. 

One thing gave the governor great satisfaction. The 


il4 


THE CRATER. 


strangers headed well up, as if disposed to pass to wind- 
ward of the cliffs, from which he inferred that none on 
board them knew anything of the existence or position of 
the cove. So much care had been taken, indeed, to con- 
ceal this spot from even the Kannakas, that no great appre- 
hension existed of its being known to any beyond the cir- 
cle of the regular colonists. As the ship drew still nearer, 
and came more under the cliffs, the governor was enabled 
to get a better view of her construction, and of the nature 
of her armament. That she was frigate-built was now 
certain, and the strength of her crew became still more 
evident, as the men were employed in shortening and 
making sail almost immediately under his eye. 

Great care was taken that no one should be visible cu 
the Peak. Of the whole island, that was the only spot 
where there was much danger of a man’s being seen from 
the ocean ; for the fringe of wood had been religiously 
preserved all around the cliffs. But with the exception of 
the single tree already mentioned, the Peak was entirely 
naked ; and, in that clear atmosphere, the form of a man 
might readily be distinguished even at a much greater 
elevation. But the glasses were leveled at the strangers 
from covers long before prepared for that purpose, and no 
fear was entertained of the lookouts, who had their in- 
structions, and well understood the importance of caution. 

At length, the vessels got so near, as to allow of the 
glasses being pointed directly down upon the upper deck 
of the ship, in particular. The strangers had a little diffi 
oulty in weathering the northern extremity of the island, 
and they came much closer to the cliffs than they other- 
wise would in order to do so. While endeavoring to as- 
certain the country of the ship, by examining her people, 
the governor fancied he saw some natives on board her. 
At first, he supposed there might be Kannakas, or Mow- 
rees, among the crew ; but a better look assured him that 
the Indians present were not acting in the character of 
sailors at all. They appeared to be chiefs, and chiefs in 
^heir war-dresses. This fact induced a still closer exami- 
nation, until the governor believed that he could trace the 


THE CRATER. 


415 


person of Waally among them. The distance itself was 
not such as to render it difficult to recognize a form, or a 
face, when assisted by the glass ; but the inverted position 
of all on board the ship did make a view less certain than 
might otherwise have been the case. Still the governor 
grew, at each instant, more and more assured that Waally 
was there, as indeed he believed his son to be, also. By 
this time, one of the men who knew the chief had come 
up to the Peak, with a message from Heaton, and he was 
of the same opinion as the governor, after taking a good 
look through the best glass. Bridget, too, had seen the 
formidable Waally, and she gave it as her opinion that he 
was certainly on board the ship. This was considered as 
a most important discovery. If Waally were there, it was 
for" no purpose that was friendly to the colonists. The 
grudge he owed the last, was enduring and deadly. Noth- 
ing but tlie strong arm of power could suppress its out- 
breakings, or had kept him in subjection, for the last five 
years. Of late, the intercourse between the two groups 
had not been great ; and it was now several months since 
any craft had been across to Ooroony’s islands, from the 
Reef. There had been sufficient time, consequently, for 
great events to have been planned and executed, and, yet, 
that the colonists should know nothing of them. 

But it was impossible to penetrate further into this 
singular mystery, so long as the strangers kept off the land. 
This they did of course, the three vessels passing to wind- 
ward of the Peak, in a line ahead, going to the southward, 
and standing along the cliffs, on an easy bowline. The 
governor now sent a whale-boat out of the cove, under her 
sails, with orders to stand directly across to the Reef, 
carrying the tidings, and bearing a letter of instructions to 
Pen nock and such .members of the council as might be 
present. The letter was short, but it rather assumed the 
probability of hostilities, while it admitted that there was 
a doubt of the issue. A good lookout was to be kept, at 
all events, and the forces of the colony were to be assem- 
bled. The governor promised to cross himself as soon 
as the strangers quitted the neighborhood of the Peak 


416 


THE CRATER. 


In the mean time, Heaton mounted a horse, and kept 
company with the squadron as it circled the island. 
From time to time, he sent messages to the governor, in 
order to let him know the movements of the strangers. 
While this was going on, the men were all called in from 
their several occupations, and the prescribed arrangements 
were made for defense. As a circuit of. the island re- 
quired several hours, there was time for everything ; and 
the whale-boat was fairly out of sight from even the 
Peak, when Heaton dispatched a messenger to say that 
the squadrou had reached the southern extremity of the 
island, and was standing off southeast, evidently steering 
towards the volcano. 

Doubts now began to be felt whether the colonists would 
see anything more of the strangers. It was natural that 
navigators should examine unknown islands, cursorily at 
least ; but it did not follow that, if trade was their object, 
they should delay their voyage in order to push their inves- 
tigations beyond a very moderate limit. Had it not been 
for the undoubted presence of savages in the ship, and the 
strong probability that Waally was one of them, the gov- 
ernor would now have had hopes that he had seen the last 
of his visitors. Nevertheless, there was the chance that 
these vessels would run down to Pancocus Island, where 
not only might a landing be easily effected, but where 
the mills, the brick-yards,* and indeed the principal cluster 
of houses, were all plainly to be seen from the offing. No 
sooner was it certain, therefore, that the strangers had 
stood away to the southward and eastward, than another 
boat was sent across to let the millers, brick-makers, stone- 
quarriers, and lumbermen know that they might receive 
guests who would require much discretion in their recep- 
tion. 

The great policy of secrecy was obviously in serious 
danger of being defeated. How the existence of the col-i 
ony was to be concealed, should the vessels remain anyl 
time in the group, it was not easy to see ; and that advan-i 
tage the governor and Heaton, both of whom attached the] 
highest importance to it were now nearly ready to abanq 


THE CRATER. 


41T 


don in despair. Still, neither thought of yielding even 
this policy until the last moment, and circumstances ren- 
dered it indispensable ; for so much reflection had been 
bestowed on that, as well as on every other interest of the 
colony, that it was not easy to unsettle any part of their 
plans — in the opinion of its rulers, at least. 

A sharp lookout for the squadron was kept, not only 
from the Peak, but from the southern end of the cliffs, all 
that day. The vessels were seen until they were quite 
near to the volcano, when their sudden disappearance was 
ascribed to the circumstance of their shortening sail. Per 
haps they anchored. This could only be conjecture, how- 
ever, as no boat could be trusted out to watch them, near 
by. Although there was no anchorage near the Peak, it 
was possible for a vessel to anchor anywhere in the vicin- 
ity of the volcano. The island of Vulcan’s Peak appears 
to have been projected upwards, out of the depths of the 
ocean, in one solid, perpendicular wall, leaving no shallow 
water near it ; but, as respects the other islands, the coast 
shoaled gradually in most places ; though the eastern edge 
of the group was an exception to the rule. Still, vessels 
could anchor in any or all the coves and roadsteads of the 
group ; and there the holding ground was unusually good, 
being commonly mud and sand, and these without rocks. 

The remainder of the day, and the whole of the succeed- 
ing night, were passed with much anxiety, by the governor 
and his friends. Time was given to receive an answer to 
the messages sent across to the Peef, but nothing was 
seen of the strangers, when day returned. The boat that 
came in from the Reef, reported that the coast was clear 
to the northward. It also brought a letter, stating that 
notices had been sent to all the different settlements, and 
that the Anne had sailed to windward, to call in all the 
fishermen, and to go off to the nearest whaling-ground, in 
order to communicate the state of things in the colony to 
Captain Betts and his companions, who were out. The 
Dragon and the Jonas, when last heard from, were cruis- 
ing only about a hundred miles to windward of the group, 
gnd it was thought important, on various accounts, that 
27 


418 


THE CRATER. 


they should be at once apprised of the arrival of the 
strangers. 

The governor was perfectly satisfied with the report of 
what had been done, and this so much the more because it 
superseded the necessity of his quitting the Peak, just at 
the moment. The elevation of the mountain was of so 
much use as a lookout, that it was every way desirable to 
profit by it, until the time for observing was passed, and 
that for action had succeeded, in its stead. Of course, 
some trusty person was kept constantly on the Peak, look- 
ing out for the strangers, though the day passed without 
one of them being seen. Early next morning, however, a 
whale-boat arrived from Rancocus, with four stout oarsmen 
in it. They had left the station, after dark, and had been 
pulling up against the trades most of the intervening time. 
The news they brought was not only alarming, but it occa- 
sioned a great deal of surprise. 

It seemed that the three strange vessels appeared off the 
point, at Rancocus Island, early on the morning of the 
preceding day. It was supposed that they had run across 
from the volcano in the darkness, after having been lost 
sight of from the Peak. Much prudence was observed by 
the colonists, as soon as light let them into the secret of 
their having such unknown neighbors. Bigelow happen- 
ing to be there, and being now a man of a good deal of 
consideration with his fellow-citizens, he assumed the direc- 
tion of matters. All the women and children ascended 
into the mountains where secret places had long been pro- 
vided for such an emergency, by clearing. out and render- 
ing two or three caves habitable, and where food and 
water were at hand. Thither most of the light articles of 
value were also transported. Luckily, Bigelow had caused 
all the saws at the mill to be taken down and secreted. 
A saw was an article not to be replaced, short of a voyage 
to Europe, even ; for in that day saws were not manu- 
factured in America ; nor, indeed, was scarcely anything 
else. 

When he had given his directions, Bigelow went alone 
to the point, to meet the strangers, who had anchored their 


THE CRATER. 


419 


vessels, and had landed in considerable force. On ap- 
proaching the place, he found about a hundred me^u ashore, 
all well armed, and seemingly governed by a sort of mili- 
tary authority. On presenting himself before this party, 
Bigelow was seized, and taken to its leader, who was a sea- 
faring man, by his appearance, of a fierce aspect and most 
severe disposition. This man could speak no English. 
Bigelow tried him in Spanish, but could get no answer out 
of him in that tongue either ; though he suspected that 
what he said was understood. At length, one was brought 
forward who could speak English, and that so well as to 
leave little doubt in Bigelow’s mind about the stranger’s 
being either an Englishman or an American. Communi- 
cations between the parties were commenced through this 
interpreter. 

Bigelow was closely questioned touching the number of 
people in the different islands, the number of vessels they 
possessed, the present situation and employments of those 
vessels, the nature of their cargoes, the places where the 
pro-perty transported in the vessels was kept, and, in short, 
everything that bore directly on the wealth and movable 
possessions of the people. From the nature of these ques- 
tions as well as from the appearance of the strangers, Big- 
elow had, at once, taken up the notion that they were pi- 
rates. In the eastern seas, piracies were often committed 
on a large scale, and there was nothing violent in this sup- 
position. The agitated state of the world, moreover, ren- 
dered piracies much more likely to go unpunished then 
than would be the case to-day, and it was well known that 
several vessels often cruised together, when engaged in 
these lawless pursuits, in those distant quarters of the 
world. Then the men were evidently of different races, 
though Bigelow was of opinion that most of them, came 
from the East Indies, the coasts, or the islands. The offi- 
cers were mostly Europeans by birth, or the descendants 
of Europeans ; but two thirds of the people whom he saw 
were persons of eastern extraction ; some appeared to be 
Lascars, and others what sailors call Chinamen. 

Bigelow was very guarded in his answers ; so much so, 


420 


THE CRATER. 


indeed, as to give great dissatisfaction to liis interrogators. 
About the Peak lie assumed an air of great mystery, and 
said none but birds could get on it ; thunder was some- 
times heard coming out of its cliffs, but man could not get 
up to see what the place contained. This account was re- 
ceived with marked interest, and to Bigelow’s surprise, 
it did not appear to awaken the distrust he had secretly 
apprehended it might. On the contrary, he was asked to 
repeat his account, and all who heard it, though a good 
deal embellished this time, appeared disposed to believe 
what he said. Encouraged by this success, the poor fel- 
low undertook to mystify a little concerning the Reef ; but 
h*ere he soon found himself met with plump denials. In 
order to convince him that deception would be of no use, 
he was now taken a short distance and confronted with 
"Waally ! 

Bigelow no sooner saw the dark countenance of the 
chief than he knew he was in bad hands. From thaPmo- 
ment, he abandoned all attempts at concealment, the condi- 
tion of the Peak excepted, and had recourse to an oppo- 
site policy. He now exaggerated everything ; the number 
and force of the vessels, giving a long list of names that 
were accurate enough, though the fact was concealed that 
they mostly belonged to boats ; and swelling the force of 
the colony to something more than two thousand fighting 
men. The piratical commander, who went by the name 
of “ the admiral ” among his followers, was a good deal 
startled by this information, appealing to Waally to know 
whether it might be relied on for truth. Waally could not 
say yes or no to this question. He had heard that the 
colonists were much more numerous than they were for- 
merly ; but how many fighting men they could now mus- 
ter was more than he could say. He knew that they were 
enormously rich, and among other articles of value, pos- 
sessed materials sufficient for fitting out as many ships as 
they pleased. It was this last information that had brought 
the strangers to the group ; for they were greatly in want 
of naval stores of almost all sorts. 

The admiral did not deem it necessary to push his in- 


THE CRATER. 


421 


quiries any further at that moment ; apparently, he did not 
expect to find much at Rancocus Island, Waally having, 
most probably, let him into the secret of its uses. The 
houses and mills were visited and plundered ; a few hogs 
and one steer were shot ; but luckily, most of the animals 
had been driven into a retired valley. The saw-mill was 
set on fire in pure wantonness, and it was burned to the 
ground. A new grist-mill escaped, merely because its 
position was not known. A great deal of injury was in- 
flicted on the settlement merely for the love of mischief, 
and a brick-kiln was actually blown up in order to enjoy 
the fun of seeing the bricks scattered in the air. In short, 
the place was almost destroyed in one sense, though no 
attempt was made to injure Bigelow. On the contrary, he 
was scarcely watched, and it was no sooner dark than he 
collected a crew, got into his own whale-boat, and came to 
windward to report what was going on to the governor 


422 


THE CRATER. 


CHAPTER XXVIL ^ 

I 

All gone ! ’tis ours the goodly land— ] 

' Look round — the heritage behold ; 

Go forth — upon the mountains stand ; , 

Then, if ye can, be cold. 

Sprague. 

Little doubt remained in the mind of the governor, 
after he had heard and weighed the whole of Bigelow’s 
story, that; he had to deal with one of those piratical squad- 
rons that formerly infested the eastern seas, a sort of suc- 
cessor of the old buccaneers. The men engaged in such 
pursuits, were usually of different nations, and they were 
always of the most desperate and ruthless characters. The 
fact that VVaally was with this party, indicated pretty 
plainly the manner in which they had heard of the colony, 
and, out of all question, that truculent chief had made his 
own bargain to come in for a share of the profits. 

It was highly probable that the original object of these 
freebooters had been to plunder the pearl -fishing vessels, 
and, hearing at their haunts, of Betto’s group, they had 
found their way across to it, where, meeting with Waally, 
they had been incited to their present enterprise. 

Little apprehension was felt for the Peak. A vessel 
might hover about it a month, and never find the cove ; and 
should the pirates even make the discovery, such were the 
natural advantages of the islanders, that the chances were 
as twenty to one, they would drive off their assailants. 
Under all the circumstances, therefore, and on the most 
mature reflection, the governor determined to cross over to • 
the Reef, and assume the charge of the defense of that most 
important position. Should the Reef fall into the hands of 
the enemy, it might require years to repair the loss ; or, 
what would be still more afflicting, the freebooters might 


42 ^ 


THE CRATER. 

\ 

hold the place, and use it as a general rendezvous, in their 
nefarious pursuits. Accordingly, after taking a most tender 
leave of his wife and children, Governor Woolston left the 
cove, in the course of the forenoon, crossing in a whale- 
boat rigged with a sail. Bridget wished greatly to accom- 
pany her husband, but to this the latter would, on no ac- 
, count, conssnt ; for he expected serious service, and thought 
it highly probable that most of the females would have to 
be sent over to the Peak, for security. Finding that her 
request could not be granted, and feeling fully the propriety 
of her husband’s decision, Mrs. Woolston so far commanded 
I her feelings as to set a good example to other wives, as be- 
came her station. 

When about mid-channel, the whale-boat made a sail 
coming down before the wind, and apparently steering for 
South Cape, as well as herself. This turned out to be the 
Anne, which had gone to windward to give the alarm to 
j the fishermen, and was now on her return. She had warned 
so many boats as to be certain they would spread the no- 
tice, and she had spoken the Dragon, which had gone in 
quest of the Jonas and the Abraham, both of which were 
a few leagues to windward. Captain Betts, however, had 
come on board the Anne, and now joined his old friend, 
the governor, when about four leagues from the cape. 
Glad enough was Mark Woolston to meet with the Anne, 
and to find so good an assistant on board her. That schooner, 
which was regularly pilot-boat built, was the fastest craft 
about the islands, and it was a great matter to put head- 
quarters on board her. The Martha came next, and the 
whale-boat was sent in to find that sloop, which was up at 
the Reef, and to order her out immediately to join the 
governor. Pennock was the highest in authority, in the 
group, after the governor, and a letter was sent to him, ap- 
prising him of all that was known, and exhorting liim to 
vigilance and activity ; pointing out, somewhat in detail, the 
i different steps he was to take, in order that no time might 
be lost. This done, the governor stood in towards Whaling 
Bight, in order to ascertain the state of things at that 
point. 


424 


THE CRATEK. 


The alarm had been given all over the group, and when 
the Anne reached her place of destination, it was ascer- 
tained that the men had been, assembled under arms, and 
every precaution taken. But AVhaling Bight was the great 
place of resort of the Kannakas, and there were no less 
than forty of those men there at that moment, engaged in 
trying out oil, or in fitting craft for the fisheries. No one 
could say which side these fellows would take, should it 
appear that their proper chiefs were engaged with the 
strangers ; though, otherwise, the colonists counted on their 
assistance with a good deal of confidence. On all ordinary 
occasions, a reasonably fair understanding existed between 
the colonists and the Kannakas. It is true, that the former 
were a little too fond of getting as much work as possible, 
for rather small compensations, out of these semi-savages; 
but as articles of small intrinsic value still went a great 
way in these bargains, no serious difficulty had yet arisen 
out of the different transactions. Some persons thought 
that the Kannakas had risen in their demands, and put less 
value on a scrap of old iron, than had been their original 
way of thinking, now that so many of their countrymen had : 
been back and forth a few times, between the group and 
other parts of the world ; a circumstance that was very nat- 
urally to be expected. But the governor knew mankind 
too well not to understand that all unequal associations lead 
to discontent. Men may get to be so far accustomed to 
inferior stations, and to their duties and feelings, as to con- 
sider their condition the result of natural laws ; but the ; 
least taste of liberty begets a jealousy and distrust that 
commonly raises a barrier between the master and servant, 
that has a never-dying tendency to keep them more or 
less alienated in feeling. When the colonists began to 
cast about them, and to reflect on the chances of their 
being sustained by these hirelings in the coming strife, very 
few of them could be sufficiently assured that the Very ; 
men who had now eaten of their bread and salt, in some) 
instances, for years, were to be relied on in a crisis. In- \ 
deed, the number of these Kannakas was a cause of serious 
embarrassment with the governor, when he came to reflect | 
on his strength, and on the means of employing it, j 


THE CRATER. 


425 


Fully two hundred of the savages, or semi-savages were 
at that moment either scattered about among the farm- 
houses, or working at th^ different places where shipping 
lay, or were out whaling to windward. Now, the whole 
force of the colony, confining it to fighting-men, and in- 
cluding those who were absent, was just three hundred and 
sixty-three. Of these, three hundred might, possibly, on 
an emergency, be brought to act on any given point, leaving 
the remainder in garrisons. But a straggling body of a 
hundred and fifty of these Kannakas, left in the settlements, 
or on the Reef, or about the crater, while the troops were 
gone to meet the enemy, presented no very pleasing picture 
to the mind of the governor. He saw the necessity of col- 
lecting these men together, and of employing them actively 
in the service of the colony, as the most efibctual mode of 
preventing their getting within the control of Waally. This 
duty was confided' to Bigelow, who was sent to the Reef 
without delay, taking with him all the Kannakas at Whal- 
ing Bight, with orders to put them on board the shipping 
at the Reef — schooners, sloops, lighters, etc., of which 
there were now, ordinarily, some eight or ten to be found 
there — and to cai-ry them all to windward ; using the 
inner channels of the group. Here was a twenty-four 
hours’ job, and one that would not only keep everybody 
quite busy, but which might have the effect to save all the 
property in the event of a visit to the Reef by the pirates. 
Bigelow was to call every Kannaka he saw to his assistance, 
in the hope of thus getting most of them out of harm’s way. 

Notwithstanding this procedure, which denoted a wise 
distrust of these Indian allies, the governor manifested a 
certain degree of confidence towards a portion of them, 
that was. probably just as discreet in another way. A part 
of the crew of every vessel, with the exception of those 
that went to the Peak, was composed of Kannakas ; and 
no less than ten of them were habitually employed in the 
Anne, which carried, two whale-boats for emergencies 
None of these men were sent away, or were in any manner 
taken from their customary employments. So much con- 
fidence had the governor in his own authority, and in his 


420 


' THE CRATER. 


power to influence these particular individuals, that he did 
not hesitate about keeping them near himself, and, in a 
measure, of intrusting the safetj^ of his person to their 
care. It is true, that the Kannakas of both the Anne and 
the Martha were a sort of confidential seamen, having now 
been employed in the colony several years, and got a taste 
for the habits of the settlers. 

When all his arrangements were made, the governor 
came out of Whaling Bight in the Anne, meeting Betts in 
the Martha off South Cape. Both vessels then stood down 
along the shores of the group, keeping a bright lookout in 
the directi ni of Rancocus Island, or towards the southward 
and westward. Two or three smaller crafts were in com- 
pany, each under the direction of some one on whom reli- 
ance could be placed. The old Neshamony had the honor 
of being thus employed, among others. The southwestern 
angle of the group formed a long, low point, or cape of 
rock, making a very tolerable roadstead on its northwest- 
ern side, or to leeward. This cape was known among the 
colonists by the name of Rancocus Needle, from the cir- 
'cumstance that it pointed with mathematical precision to 
the island in question. Thus, it was a practice with the 
coasters to run for the extremity of this cape, and then to 
stand away on a due southwest course, certain of seeing 
the mountains for which they were steering in the next few 
hours. Among those who plied to and fro in this manner, 
were many who had no very accurate notions of navigation ; 
and, to them, this simple process was found to be quite 
useful. 

Off Rancocus Needle, the governor had appointed a ren- 
dezvous for the whole of his little fleet. In collecting 
these vessels, six in all, including four boats, his object had 
not been resistance — for the armaments of the whole 
amounted to but six swivels, together with a few muskets 
— but vigilance. He was confident that Waally would 
lead his new friends up towards the Western Roads, the 
point where he had made all his own attacks, and where 
he was most acquainted; and the position under the Needle 
was the best station for obserying the approach of the 


THE CRATER. 427 

strangers, coming as they must, if they came at all, from 
the southwest. 

The Anne was the first craft to arrrive off the point ot 
the Needle, and she found the coast clear. As yet, no 
signs of invaders were to be seen ; and the Martha being 
within a very convenient distance to the eastward, a sig- 
nal was made to Captain Betts to stand over towards the 
Peak, and have a search in that quarter. Should the stran- 
gers take it into their heads to beat up under the cliffs 
again, and thence stretch across to the group, it would 
bring them in with the land to windward of the observing 
squadron, and give them an advantage the governor was 
very far from wishing them to obtain. The rest of the 
crah came down- to the place of rendezvous, and kept 
standing off and on, under short sail, close in with the 
rocks, so as to keep in the smoothest of the water. Such 
was the state of things when the sun went down in the 
ocean. 

All night the little fleet of the colonists remained in the 
same uncertainty as to the movements of their suspicious 
visitors. About twelve the Martha came round the Needle, 
and reported the coast clear to the southward. She had 
been quite to the* cove, and had communicated with the 
shore. Nothing had been seen of the ship and her con- 
sorts since the governor left, nor had any further tidings 
been brought up from to leeward, since the arrival of Bige- 
low. On receiving this information, the governor ordered 
his command to run off, in diverging lines, for seven leagues 
each, and then to wait for day. This was accordingly 
done ; the Anne and Martha, as a matter of course, out- 
stripping the others. At the usual hour day re-appeared, 
when the lookout aloft, on board the Anne, reported the 
Martha about two leagues to the northward, the Nesha- 
mony about as far to the southward, though a league far- 
ther to windward. The other craft were known to be to 
the northward of the Martha, but could not be seen. As 
for the Neshamony, she was coming down with a flowing 
sheet, to speak the governor. 

The sun had fairly risen, when the Neshamony came 


428 


THE CRATER. 


down on the Anne’s weather-quarter, both craft then stand* 
ing to the northward. The Neshamony had seen nothing. 

^ The governor now directed her commander to stand di- 
rectly dowb towards Rancocus Island. If she saw nothing, 
she was to go in and land, in order to get the news from 
the people ashore. Unless the information obtained in this 
way was of a nature that demanded a different course, she 
was to beat up to the volcano, reconnoitre there, then 
stand across to the cove, and go in ; whence she was to 
sail for the Reef, unless she could hear of the governor at 
some other point, when she was to make the best of her 
way to him. 

The Anne now made sail towards the Martha, which | 
sloop was standing to the northward, rather edging from \ 
the group, under short canvas. No land was in sight, 
though its haze could be discovered all along the eastern 
board, where the group was known to lie ; but neither the 
Peak, nor the Volcano, nor Rancocus heights could now 
be seen from the vessels. About ten the governor spoke 
Captain Betts, to ask the news. The Martha had seen 
nothing ; and, shortly after, the three boats to the north- 
w'ard joined, and made the same report.^ Nothing had been 
seen of the strangers, who seemed, most unaccountably, to 
be suddenly lost ! 

This uncertainty rendered all the more reflecting por- 
tion of the colonists exceedingly uneasy. Should the 
pirates get into the group by either of its weather channels, ; 
they would not only find all the property and vessels that ^ 
had been taken in that direction, at their mercy, but they ^ 
would assail the settlements in their weakest parts, render j 
succor more difficult, and put themselves in a position , 
whence it would be easiest to approach or to avoid their ^ 
foes. Any one understanding the place, its facilities for 
attacking, or its defenses, would naturally endeavor to : 
enter the group as well to windward as possible; but] 
Waally had never attempted anything of the sort; and, as 
he knew little of the inner passages, it was not probable 
he had thought of suggesting a course different from his 
own to his new friends. The very circumstance that he 


THE CRATER. 


429 


' had always approached by the same route, was against it ; 
for, if his sagacity had not pointed out a preferable course 
for himself, it was not to be expected it would do it for 
others. Still, it was not unreasonable to suppose that 
practiced seamen might see the advantages which the savage 
had overlooked, and a very serious apprehension arose in 
the minds of the governor and Betts, in particular, touching 
this point. All that could be done, however, was to dis- 
patch two of the boats, with orders to enter the group by 
the northern road, and proceed as far as the Reef. The 
third boat was left to cruise off the Needle, in order to 
communicate with anything that should go to that place of 
rendezvous with a report, and, at the same time, to keep a 
lookout for the pirates. With the person in charge of this 
boat, was left the course to be steered by those who were 
to search for the governor, as they arrived off the Needle 
from time to time. 

The Anne and Martha bore up, in company, as soon as 
these arrangements were completed, it being the plan now 
to go and look for the strangers. Once in view, the gov- 
ernor determined not to lose sight of the pirates, again, but 
to remain so near them, as to make sure of knowing what 
they were about. In such cases, a close lookout should 
always be kept on the enemy, since an advantage in time 
is gained by so -doing, as well as a great deal of uncertainty 
and indecision avoided. 

For seven hours the Anne and Martha stood towards 
Rancocus Island, tunning off about two leagues from each 
other,- thereby “ spreading a clew,” as sailors call it, that 
would command the view of a good bit of water. The 
tops of the mountains were soon seen, and by the end of 
the time mentioned, most of the lower land became visible. 
Nevertheless, the s^i-angers did not come in sight. Greatly 
at a loss how to 'proceed, the governor now sent the Martha 
down for information, with orders for her to beat up to the 
Needle, as soon as she could, the Anne intending to ren- 
dezvous there, next morning, agreeably to previous ar- 
rangements. As the Martha went off before the wind, the 
Anne hauled up sharp towards the Peak, under the im 


430 


THE CRATER. 


pression that something might have been seen _of the 
strangers from the high land there. About four in the 
morning the Anne went into the cove, and the governor 
ascended to the plain to have an interview with Heaton. 
He found everything tranquil in that quarter. Nothing 
had been seen of the strange squadron, since it went out 
of sight, under the volcano ; nor had even the Neshamony 
come in. The governor’s arrival was soon known, early as 
it was, and he had visits from half the women on the island, 
to inquire after their absent husbands. Each wife was told 
all the governor knew, and this short intercourse relieved 
the minds of a great many. 

At eight, the Anne sailed again, and at ten she had the 
Needle in sight, with three 'boots off it, on the lookout. 
Here, then, were tidings at last ; but the impatience of the 
governor was restrained, in order to make out the character 
of a sail that had been seen coming down through the 
straits, under a cloud of canvas. In a short time, this ves- 
sel was made out to be the Abraham, and the Anne hauled 
up to get her news. The two schooners spoke each other 
about twelve o’clock, but the Abrahatn had no intelligence { 
to impart. She had been sent, or rather carried by Bige- j 
low, out by the eastern passage, and bad stood along the 
whole of the weather-side of the group, to give notice to 
the whalers where to go ; and she had notified the two 
brigs to go in to windward, and to remain in Weather Bay, 
where all the rest of the dull crafts had been taken for 
safety ; and then had come to leeward to look for the gov- 
ernor. As the Abraham was barely a respectable sailer, 
it was not deemed prudent to take her too near the strangers ; j 
but she might see how matters were situated to the east- 
ward. By keeping on the weather-coast, and so near the 
land as not to be cut off from it, she would be of particular 
service ; since no enemy could approach in that quarter,- 
without being seen ; and Bigelow’s familiarity with the 
channels would enable him, not only to save his schooner 
by running in, but would put it in his power to give notice 
throughout the whole group, of the position and apparent ^ 
intentions of the strangers. The Abraham, accordingly,! 


THE CRATER. 431 

hauled by the wind, to beat back to her station, while the 
Anne kept off for the Needle. ^ 

At the rendezvous, the governor found most of his craft 
waiting for him. The Neshamony was still behind ; but 
all the rest had executed their orders, and were standing 
off and on, near the cape, ready to report. Nothing had 
been seen of the strangers ! It was certain they had not 
approached the group, for two of the boats had just come 
out of it, having left the colonists busy with the prepara- 
tions for defense, but totally undisturbed in other respects. 
This information gave the governor increased uneasiness. 
His hope of hearing from the pirates, in time to be ready 
to meet them, now depended on his reports from to lee- 
ward. The Neshamony ought soon to be in ; nor could it 
be long before the Martha would return. The great source 
of apprehension now came from a suspicion that some of 
the Kannakas might be acting as pirates, along with Waally. 
For Waally himself no great distrust was felt, since he 
had never been allowed to see much of the channels of 
the group ; but it was very different with the sea-going Kan- 
nakas, who had been employed by the colonists. Some of 
these men were familiar with all the windings and turnings 
of the channels, knew how much water could be taken 
through a passage, and, though not absolutely safe pilots, 
perhaps, were men who might enable skillful seamen to 
handle their vessels with tolerable security within the 
islands. Should it turn out that one or two of these fel- 
lows had undertaken to carry the strangers up to wind- 
ward, and to take them into one of the passaged in that 
quarter of the group/they might be down upon the differ- 
ent fortified points trefore they were expected, and sweep 
all before them. It is true, this danger had been in a meas- 
ure foreseen, and persons had been sent to look out for it ; 
but it never had appeared so formidable to the governor, as 
now that he found himself completely at fault where to 
look for his enemy. At length, a prospect of fresh reports 
appeared.- The Neshamony was seen in the southern 
board, standing across from the Peak ; and about the same 
time, the Martha was made out in the southwestern, beat- 


432 


THE CRATER. 


ing up from Rancocus Island direct. As the first had 
been ordered to land, and had also been round by the vol- 
cano, the Anne hauled up for her, the governor being im- 
patient to get her tidings first. In half an hour, the two 
vessels were alongside of each other. But the Ne&hamony 
had very little that was new to tell ! The pirates had re- 
mained on the island but a short time after Bigelow and 
his companions got away, doing all the damage they could, I 
however, in that brief space. When they left, it was night, 
and nothing very certain could be told of their movements. 
When last seen, however, they were on a wind, and head- 
ing to the southward, a little westerly ; which looked like 
beating up towards the volcano, the trades now blowing 
due southeast. But the Neshamony had been quite round 
the volcano, without obtaining a sight of the strangers. 
Thence she proceeded to the Peak, where she arrived 
only a few hours after the governor had sailed, going into 
the cove and finding all quiet. Of course, the Martha 
could have no more to say than this, if as much ; and the 
governor was once more left to the pain of deep suspense. 
As was expected, when Betts joined, he had nothing at all 
to tell. He had been ashore at Rancocus Point, heard the 
complaints of the people touching their losses, but had 
obtained no other tidings of the wrong-doers. Unwilling 
to lose time, he stayed but an hour, and had been beating 
back to the rendezvous the rest of the period of his ab- 
sence. Was it possible that the strangers had gone back 
to Betto’s group, satisfied with the trifling injuries they 
had inflicted ? This could hardly be ; yet it was not easy 
to say where else they had been. After a consultation, it 
was decided that the Martha should stand over in that direc- 
tion, in the hope that she might pick up some intelligence, 
by meeting with fishing canoes that often came out to a 
large cluster of rocks, that lay several leagues to windward 
of the territories of Ooroony and Waally. Captain Betts 
had taken his leave of the governor, and had actually got 
on board his own vessel, in order to make sail, when a 
signal was seen flying on board one of the boats that was i 
kept cruising well out in the straits, intimating that strange^ 


THE CRATER. 


433 


vessels were seen to windward. This induced the governoi 
to recall the Martha, and the whole of the lookout vessels 
stood off into the straits. 

In less than an hour, all doubts were removed. There 
were the strangers, sure enough, and what was more, there 
was the Abraham ahead of them, pushing for Cape South 
passage, might and main ; for the strangers were on her 
^ heels, going four feet to her three. It appeared, after- 
wards, that the pirates, on quitting Rancocus Island, had 
stood off to the southward, until they reached to windward 
of the volcano, passing however a good bit to leeward of 
the island, on their first stretch, when, finding the Peak 
just dipping, they tacked to the northward and westward, 
and stood off towards the ordinary whaling-ground of the 
colony, over which they swept in the expectation of cap- 
turing the brigs. The pirates had no occasion for oil, 
which they probably would have destroyed in pure wan- 
tonness, but they were much in want of naval stores, cord- 
age in particular, and_ the whaling gear of the two brigs 
would have been very acceptable to them. While running 
in for the group, after an unsuccessful search, they made 
the Abraham, and gave chase. That schooner steered for 
the straits, in the hope of finding the governor ; but was so 
hard pressed by her pursuers, as to be glad to edge in for 
Cape South roads, intending to enter the group, and run 
for the Reef, if she could do no better. 

Luckily, the discovery of the lookout boat prevented 
the execution of the Abraham’s project, which would have 
led the pirates directly up to the capital. But no sooner 
did the governor see how things were situated, than he 
boldly luffed up towards the strangers, intending to divert 
them from the chase of the Abraham ; or, at least, to sepa- 
rate them, in chase of himself. In this design he was 
handsomely seconded by Betts, in the Martha, who hauled 
his wind in the wake of the Anne, and carried everything 
that would draw, in order to keep his station. This de- 
cision and show of spirit had its effect. The two brigs, 
which were most to the southward, altered their course, 
and edged away for the Anne and Martha, leaving the ship 
28 


434 


THE CRATER. 


to follow the Abraham alone. The governor was greatly 
rejoiced at this, for he had a notion a vessel as large as the 
strange ship would hesitate about entering the narrow 
waters, on account of her draught ; she being much larger 
than any craft that had ever been in before, as the Kanna- 
kas must know, and would not fail to report to the pirates. 
The governor supposed this ship to be a vessel of between 
six and seven hundred tons measurement. Her armament 
appeared to be twelve guns of a side, below, and some 
eight or ten guns on her quarter-deck and forecastle. 
This was a formidable craft in those days, making what 
was called in the English service, an eight-and-twenty gun 
frigate, a class of cruisers that were then found to be very 
useful. It is true, that the first class modern sloop-of-war 
would blow one of those little frigates out of water, being 
several hundred tons larger, with armaments, crews, and 
spars in proportion ; but an eight-and-twenty gun -frigate 
offered a very formidable force to a community like that 
of the crater, and no one knew it better than the governor. 

The three strangers all sailed like witches. It was well 
for the Abraham that she had a port so close under her 
lee, or the ship would have had her, beyond the smallest 
doubt. As it was she caught it, as she rounded the cape, 
as close in as she could go, the frigate letting slip at her 
the whole of her starboard broadside, which cut away the 
schooner’s gaff, jib-stay, and main-topmast, besides killing a 
Kannaka, who was in the main-cross- trees at the time. 
This last occurrence turned out to be fortunate, in the 
main, however, since it induced all the Kannakas to be- 
lieve that the strangers were their enemies, in particular ; 
else why kill one of their number, when were there just as 
many colonists as Kannakas to shoot at ! 

As the governor expected, the ship did not venture to 
follow the Abraham in. That particular passage, in fact, 
was utterly unknown to Waally, and those with him, and 
he could not give such an account of it as would encour- 
age the admiral to stand on. Determined not to lose 
time unn('cessarily, the latter hauled short off shore, and 
made sail in chase of the Anne and Martha, which, by 


THE CRATER. 


4B5- 


this time, were about mid-channel, heading across to the 
Peak. It was not the wish of the governor, however, to 
lead the strangers any nearer to the cove than was neces- 
sary, and, no sooner did he see the Abraham well within 
the islands, her sails concealed by the trees, of which there 
was now a little forest on this part of the coast, and the 
ship drawing well off the land in hot pursuit of himself, 
than he kept away in the direction of Rancocus Island, 
bringing the wind on his larboard quarter.' The strangers 
followed, and in half an hour they were all so far to leeward 
of Cape South, as to remove any apprehension of their 
going in there very soon. 

Thus far, the plan of the governor had succeeded to ad- 
miration. He had his enemies in plain sight, within a 
league of him, and in chase of his two fastest craft. The 
best sailing of the Anne and Martha was on a wind, and, 
as a matter of course, they could do better, comparatively, 
in smooth water, than larger craft. No sooner, therefore, 
had he got his pursuers far enough off the land, and far 
enough to leeward, than the governor wore, or jibed would 
be the better word, running off northwest, with the wind 
on his starboard quarter. This gave the strangers a little 
the advantage, in one sense, though they lost it in another. 
It brought them on his weather-beam ; pretty well forward 
j of it, too ; but the Needle was directly ahead of the schooner 
and sloop, and the governor foresaw that his pursuers would 
have to keep off to double that, which he was reasonably 
certain of reaching first. 

Everything turned out as the governor anticipated. The 
pirates had near a league of water more to pass over, 
before they could double the Needle, than the Anne and 
the Martha had ; and, though those two crafts were obliged 
to haul up close to the rocks, under a distant fire from all 
three of their pursuers, no harm was done, and they were 
soon covered by the land, and were close-hauled in smooth 
water, to leeward of the gi-oup. Twenty minutes later, 
the strangers came round the cape, also, bearing up sharp, 
and following their chase. This was placing the enemy 
just where the colonists could have wished. They were 


436 


THE CRATER. 


DOW to-leeward of every point in the settlements, looking 
up towards the roads, which opened on the western pas- 
sage, or that best known to Waally, and which he would 
be most likely to enter, should he attempt to pilot the 
strangers in. This was getting the invaders precisely 
where the governor wished them to be, if they were to 
attack him at all. They could not reach the Reef in less 
than twenty-four hours, with their knowledge of the chan- 
nel ; would have to approach it in face of the heaviest and 
strongest batteries, those provided for Waally ; and, if suc- 
cessful in reaching the inner harbor, would enter it under 
the fire of the long twelves mounted on the crater, which 
was, rightly enough, deemed to be the citadel of the 
entire colony unless, indeed, the Peak might better deserve 
that name. 


1 

•( 


TUE CRATER. 


437 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 

It scares the sea-birds from their nests ; 

They dart and wheel with deafening screams; 

Now dark — and now their wings and breasts 
Flash back amid disastrous gleams. 

O sin ! what hast thou done on this fair earth ? 

The world, O man ! is wailing o’er thy birth. 

Dana. 

It was the policy of the colonists to lead their pur- 
suers directly up to the Western Roads. On the small 
island, under which vessels were accustomed to anchor, was 
a dwelling or two, and a battery of two guns — nine-pound- 
ers. These guns were to command the anchorage. The 
island lay directly in front of the mouth of the passage, 
making a very beautiful harbor within it; though the 
water was so smooth in the roads, and the last were so 
, much the most convenient for getting under-way in, that 
this more sheltered haven was very little used. On the> 
present occasion, however, all colony craft beat up past 
the island, and anchored inside of it. The crews were 
i then landed, and they repaired to the battery, which they 
found ready for service in consequence of orders previ- 
ously sent. 

Here, then, was the point where hostilities would be 
likely to commence, should hostilities commence at all. 
One of the boats was sent across to the nearest island in- 
land, where a messenger was landed, with directions to 
carry a letter to Pennock, at the Reef. This messenger 
was compelled to walk about six miles, the whole distance 
in a grove of young palms and bread-fruit trees ; great 
pains having been taken to cultivate both of those plants 
throughout the group, in spots favorable to their growth. 
After getting through the grove, the path came out on a 
plantation, where a horse was kept for this especial object ; 


438 


THE CRATEK. 


and here the man mounted and galloped off to the Reef, 
soon finding himself amid a line of some of the most 
fiourishing plantations in the colony. Fortunately, how- 
ever, as things then threatened, these plantations were not 
on the main channel, but stood along the margin of a pas- 
sage which was deep enough to receive any craft that 
floated, but which was a cul-de-sac, that could be entered 
only from the eastward. Along the margin of the ship- 
channel, there was not yet soil of the right quality for 
cultivation, though it was slowly forming, as the sands that 
lay thick on the adjacent rocks received other substances 
by exposure to the atmosphere. 

The Anne and her consorts had been anchored about 
an hour, when the strangers hove-to in the roads, distant 
about half a mile from the battery. Here they all hoisted 
white flags, as if desirous of having a parley. The 
governor did not well know how to act. He could not 
tell whether or not it would do to trust such men ; and 
he as little liked to place Betts, or any other confidential 
friend, in their power, as he did to place himself there. 
Nevertheless, prudence required that some notice should 
be taken of the flag of truce ; and he determined to go 
off a short distance from the shore in one of his own boats, 
and hoist a white flag, which would be as much as to say 
that he was waiting there to receive any communication 
that the strangers might chose to send him. 

It was not long after the governor’s boat had reached 
her station, which was fairly within the short range of the 
two guns in the battery, ere a boat shoved off from the 
ship, showing the white flag, too. In a few minutes, the 
two boats were within the lengths of each other’s oars, 
riding peacefully side by side. " 

On board the stranger’s boat, in addition to the six men 
who were at the oars, were three' persons in the stern- 
sheets. 6ne of these men, as was afterwards ascertained, 
was the admiral himself ; a second was an interpreter, who 
spoke English with a foreign accent, but otherwise per- 
fectly well ; and the third was no other than Waally ! 
The governor thought a fierce satisfaction was gleaming in 


THE CRATER. 


439 


the countenance of the savage when they met, though the 
latter said nothing. The interpreter opened the communi- 
cations. 

“ Is any one in that boat,” demanded this person, “ who 
is empowered to speak for the authorities ashore ? ” 

“ There is,” answered the governor, who did not deem it 
wise, nevertheless, exactly to proclaim his rank. “ I have 
full powers, being directly authorized by the chief-magistrate 
of this colony.” 

“To what nation does your colony belong?” 

This was an awkward question, and one that had not 
been at all anticipated, and which the governor was not 
fully prepared to answer. 

“ Before interrogatories are thus put, it might be as well 
for me to know by what authority I am questioned at all,” 
returned Mr. Woolston. “ What are the vessels which 
have anchored in our waters, and under what flag do they 
sail ? ” 

“ A man-of-war never answers a hail, unless it comes 
fi'om another man-of-war,” answered the interpreter, 
smiling. 

“ Do you, then, claim to be vessels of war ? ” 

“ If compelled to use our force, you will find us so. 
We have not come here to answer questions, however, but 
to ask them. Does your colony claim to belong to any 
particular nation, or not ? ” 

“We are all natives of the United States of America, 
and our vessels sail under her flag.” 

“The United States of America !” repeated the inter- 
preter, with an ill-concealed expression of contempt. 
“ There is good picking among the vessels of that nation, 
as the great European belligerents well know ; and while 
so many are profiting by it, we may as well come in for 
our share.” 

It may be necessary to remind a portion of our readers, 
that this dialogue occurred more than forty years ago, and 
long before the republic sent out its fleets and armies to 
conquer adjacent states ; when, indeed, it had scarce a 
fleet and army to protect its own coasts and frontiers from 


440 


THE CRATER. 


insults and depredations. It is said that when the late 
Emperor of Austria, the good and kind-hearted Francis IL, 
was shown the ruins of the little castle of Hapsburg, 
which is still to be seen crowning a low height, in the 
canton of Aarraw, Switzerland, he observed, “ I now see 
that we have not always been a great family.” The gov- 
ernor cared very little for the fling at his native land, but 
he did not relish the sneer, as it indicated the treatment 
likely to be bestowed on his adopted country. Still, the 
i, case was not to be remedied except by the use of the 
means already provided, should his visitors see fit to resort 
to force. 

A desultory conversation now ensued, in which the 
strangers pretty plainly let their designs be seen. In the 
first place they demanded a surrender of all the craft be- 
longing to the colony, big and little, together with all the 
naval stores. This condition complied with, the strangers 
intimated that it was possible their conquests would not be 
pushed much farther. Of provisions,'they stood in need of 
pork and they understood that the colony had hogs with- 
out number. If they would bring down to the island a , 
hundred fat hogs, with barrels and salt, wdthin twenty- 
four hours, it was probable, however, no further demand 
for provisions would be made. They had obtained fifty 
barrels of very excellent flour at Rancocus Island, and ; 
could not conveniently stow more than that number, in 
addition to the demanded hundred barrels of pork. The ' 
admiral also required that hostages should be sent on board 
his ship and that he should be provided with proper pilots, 
in order that he, and a party of suitable size, might take I 
the Anne and the Martha, and go up to the town, which I 
he understood lay some twenty or thirty miles within the j 
group. Failing of an acquiescence in these terms, war, 1 
and war of the most ruthless character, was to be imme- | 
diatly proclaimed. All attempts to obtain an announce- 1 
ment of any national character, on the part of the strangers, ! 
was evaded; though, from the appearance of everything! 
he sawq the governor could not now have the smallestj 
doubt that he had to do with pirates. ■ 


THE CRATER. 


441 


After getting all out of the strangers that he could, and 
It was but little at the best, the governor quietly, but stead- 
ily refused to accede to any one of the demands, and put 
the issue on the appeal to force. The strangers were ob 
viousiy disappointed at this answer, for the thoughtful, 
simple manner of Mark Woolston had misled them, and 
they had actually flattered themselves with obtaining all 
the}’ wanted without a struggle. At first, the anger of the 
admiral threatened some treacherous violence on the spot, 
but the crews of the two boats were so nearly equal, that 
prudence, if not good faith, admonished him of the neces- 
sity of' respecting the truce. The parties separated, how- 
ever, with denunciations, nay, maledictions, on the part of 
the strangers, the colonists remaining quiet in demeanor, 
but firm. 

The time taken for the two boats to return to their re- 
spective points of departure was but short; and scarcely 
was that of the stranger arrived alongside of its vessel, ere 
the slnp fired a gun. This was the signal of war, the shot 
of that first gun falling directly in the battery, where it 
took off the hand of a Kannaka, besides doing some other 
damage. This was not a very favorable omen, but the 
governor encouraged his people, "and to work both sides 
went, trying who could do the other, the most harm. The 
cannonading was lively and well sustained, though it was 
not like one in the present time, when shot are hollow, and 
a gun is chambered and, not unfrequently, has a muzzle 
almost as large as the open end of a fiour-barrel, and a 
breech as big as a hogshead. At the commencement of 
this century a long twelve-pounder was considered a smart 
piece, and was thought very capable of doing a good deal 
of mischief. The main battery of the ship was composed 
of guns of that description, while one of the brigs carried 
eight nines, and the other fourteen sixes. As the ship 
mounted altogether thirty, if not thirty-two, guns, this left 
the governor to contend with batteries that had in them at 
least twenty-six pieces, as opposed to his own two. A 
couple of lively guns, nevertheless, well-served and properl} 
mounted behind good earthen banks, are quite equal to 


442 


^THE CRATER. 


several times tlieir number on board ship. Notwithstand- 
ing the success of the first shot of the pirates, this truth 
soon became sufficiently apparent, and the vessels found 
themselves getting the worst of it. The governor, him- 
self, or Captain Betts, pointed every gun that was fired in 
the battery, and they seldom failed to make their marks on 
the hulls of the enemy. On the other hand, the shot of 
the shipping was either buried in the mounds of the bat- 
tery, or passed over its low parapets. Not a man was hurt 
ashore, at the end of an hour’s struggle, with the excep- 
tion of the Kannaka first wounded, while seven of the 
pirates were actually killed and near twenty wounded. 

Had the combat continued in the manner in which it 
was commenced, the result would have been a speedy and 
signal triumph in favor of the colony. But, by this time, 
the pirate admiral became convinced that he had gone the 
wrong way to work, and that he must have recourse to 
some management, in order to prevail against such stub- 
born foes. Neither of the vessels was anchored, but all 
kept under way, manceuvring about in front of the battery, 
but one brig hauled out of the line to the northward, and 
making a stretch or two clear of the line of fire, she came 
down on the north end of the battery, in a position to rake 
it. Now, this battery had been constructed for plain, 
straightforward cannonading in front, with no embrasures 
to command the roads on either flank. Curtains of earth 
had been thrown up on the flanks, to protect the men, it 
is true, but this passive sort of resistance could do very 
little good in a protracted contest. While this particular 
brig was gaining that favorable position, the ship and the 
other brig fell off to leeward, and were soon at so long a 
shot, as to be out of harm’s way. This was throwing the 
battery entirely out of the combat, as to anything aggres- 
sive, and compelled a prompt decision on the part of the 
colonists. No sooner did the nearest brig open her fire, 
and that within short canister range, than the ship and her 
consort hauled in again on the southern flank of the bat- 
tery, the smallest vessel leading, and feeling her way with 
the lead. Perceiving the utter uselessness of remaining, 


THE CRATER. 


443 


and the great danger he ran of being cut off, the governor 
now commenced a retreat to hk boats. This movement 
was not without danger, one colonist being killed in effect- 
ing it, and two more of the Kannakas wounded. It suc- 
ceeded, notwithstanding, and the whole party got off Co 
the Anne and Martha. 

This retreat, of course, left the island and the battery 
at the mercy of the pirates. The latter landed, set fire to 
the buildings, blew up the magazine, dismounted the guns, 
and did all the other damage to the place that could be 
accomplished in , the course of a short visit. They then 
went on board their vessels, again, and began to beat up 
into the Western Passage, following the colonists who pre- 
ceded them, keeping just out of gun-shot. ^ 

The Western Passage was somewhat crooked, and dif- 
ferent reaches were of very frequent occurrence. This 
sometimes aided a vessel in ascending, or going to wind- 
ward, and sometimes offered obstacles. As there were 
many other passages, so many false channels, some of which 
were culs-de-sacs, it was quite possible for one ignorant of 
the true direction to miss his way ; and this circumstance 
suggested to the governor an expedient which was highly 
approved of by his friend and counselor. Captain Betts, 
when it was laid before that plain, but experienced sea- 
man. There was one false passage, about a league within 
the group, which led off to the northward, and far from all 
the settlements, that offered several inducements to enter 
it. In the first place, it had more of the appearance of a 
main channel, at its point of junction, than the main chan- 
nel itself, and might easily be mistaken for it; then, it 
turned right into the wind’s eye, after beating up it for a 
league ; and at the end of a long reach that ran due south- 
east, it narrowed so much as to render it questionable 
whether the Anne and Martha could pass between the 
rocks, into a wide bay beyond. This bay was the true 
cul-de-sac^ having no other outlet or inlet than the narrow 
pass just mentioned ; though it was very large, was dotted 
with islands, and reached quite to the vicinity of Loana 
Island, or within a mile or two of the Reef. 


444 


THE CRATER. 


The main question was wiiether the schooner and the 
sloop could pass through the opening which communicated 
between the reach and the bay. If not, they must ineV' 
itably fall into the hands of the pirates, should they enter 
the false channal, and be followed in. Then, even admit- 
ting that the Anne and Martha got through the narrow 
passage, should the pirates follow them in their boats, there 
would be very little probability of their escaping ; though 
they might elude their pursuers for a time among the 
islands. Captain Betts was of opinion that the two vessels 
could get through, and was strongly in favor of endeavoring 
to lead the enemy off the true course to the Reef, by en- 
tangling them in this cul-de-sac. If nothing but delay was 
gained, delay would be something. It was always an ad- 
vantage to the assailed to have time to recover from their 
first alarm, and to complete their arrangements. The gov- 
ernor listened to his friend’s arguments with favor, but he 
sent the Neshamony on direct to the Reef, with a letter to 
Rennock, acquainting that functionary with the state of 
things, the intended plan, and a request that a twelve- 
pounder, that was mounted on a traveling carriage, might 
be put on board the boat, and sent to a landing, whence it 
might easily be dragged by hand to the narrow passage so 
often mentioned. This done, he took the way into the 
false channel himself. 

The governor, as a matter of course, kept at a safe dis- 
tance ahead of the pirates in the Anne and the Martha. 
This he was enabled to do quite easily, since fore-and-aft 
vessels make much quicker tacks than those that are square- 
rigged. As respects water, there was enough of that al- 
most everywhere; it being rather a peculiarity of the 
group, that nearly every one of its passages had good chan- 
nels and bold shores. There was one shoal, however, and 
that of some extent, in the long reach of the false channel 
named ; and when the governor resolved to venture in 
there, it was not without the hope of leading the pirate ship 
on it. The water on this shoal was about sixteen feet 
deep, and there was scarce a hope of either of the brigs 
ffetching up on it ; but, could the ship be enticed there, and 


THE CRATER. 


445 


did she only strike with good way on her, and on a falling 
tide, her berth might be made very uncomfortable. A1 
though this hope appeared faintly in the background of the 
governor’s project, his principal expectation was that of 
being able to decoy the strangers into a cul-de-sac, and to 
embarrass them with delays and losses. As soon as the 
Neshamony was out of sight, the Anne and Martha, there- 
fore, accompanied by the other boats, stood into the false 
channel, and went off to the northward merrily, with a lead- 
ing wind. When the enemy reached the point, they did 
not hesitate to follow, actually setting studding sails in their 
eagerness not be left too far behind. It is probable that 
Waally was of but little service to his allies just then, for, 
after all, the knowledge of that chief was limited to a very 
imperfect acquaintance with such channels as would admit 
of the passage of even canoes. The distances were by no 
means trifling in these crooked passages. By the true chan- 
nel, it was rather more than seven-arid -twenty miles from 
the western roads to the Reef ; but it was fully ten more 
by this false channel, even deducting the half league where 
there was no passage at all, or the bottom of the bag. 
Now, it required time to beat up such a distance, and the 
sun was setting when the governor reached the shoal al- 
ready mentioned, about which he kept working for some 
time, in the hope of enticing the ship on it in the dark. 
But the pirates were too wary to be misled in this fashion. 
The light no sooner left them than they took in all their can- 
vas and anchored. It is probable that they believed them- 
selves on their certain way to the Reef, and felt indisposed 
to risk anything by adventuring in the obscurity. Both 
parties, consequently, prepared to pass the night at their 
anchors. The Anne and Martha were now within less 
than a mile of the all-important passage, through which 
they were to make their escape, if they escaped at all. 
The opportunity of ascertaining the fact was not to be neg- 
lected, and it was no sooner so dark as to veil his move- 
ments than the governor went on board the Martha, which 
was a vessel of more beam than the Anne, and beat her up 
to the rocks, in order to make a trial of its capacity. * J t 


446 


THE CRATER. 


was just possible to take the sloop through iu several places ; 
but, in one spot, the rocks came too near together to admit 
of her being hauled between them. The circumstances 
would not allow of delay, and to work everybody went, 
with such implements as offered, to pick away the rock and 
to open a passage. By midnight this was done ; and the 
Martha was carried through into the bay beyond. Here 
she stood off a short distance and anchored. The governor 
went back to his own craft and moved her about a mile, 
being apprehensive of a boat attack in the darkness, should 
he remain where he was. This precaution was timely, for, 
in the morning, after day had dawned, no less than seven 
boats were seen pulling down to the pirates, which had, no 
doubt, been looking for the schooner and the sloop in vain. 
The governor got great credit for this piece of manage- 
ment ; more even than might have been expected, the vul- 
gar usually bestowing their applause on acts of a glittering 
character, rather than on those which denote calculation 
and forethought. 

As the day advanced, the pirates recommenced their 
operations. The delay, however, had given the colonists a 
great advantage. There had been time to communicate 
with the Reef, and to receive the gun sent for. It had 
greatly encouraged the people up at the town to hear that 
their enemies were in the false channel ; and they redoubled 
their efforts, as one multiplies his blows on a retreating 
enemy. Penuock sent the governor most encouraging re- 
ports, and gave him to understand that he had ordered 
nearly all 'the men in from the out-posts, leaving just 
enough to have a lookout, and to keep the Kannakas in 
order. As it was now understood that the attack must be 
on the capital, there was every reason for taking this course. 

All the vessels were soon under way again. The pirates 
missed the Martha, which they rightly enough supposed 
had gone ahead. They were evidently a good deal puz- 
zled about the channel, but supposed it must be somewhere 
to windward. In the mean time, the governor kept the 
Anne manoeuvring around the shoal, in the hope of luring 
th«» ship on it. Nor was he without rational hopes of sue* 


THE CRATER. 


447 


cess, for the brigs separated, one going close to each side of 
the sound, to look for the outlet, while the ship kept beat- 
ing up directly in its centre, making a sinuous course 
towards the schooner, which was always near the shallow 
water. At length the governor was fully rewarded for his 
temerity ; the admiral had made a stretch that carried him 
laterally past the lee side of the shoal, and when he went 
about, he looked directly for the Anne, which was standing 
back and forth near its weather margin. Here the gov- 
ernor held on, until he had the satisfaction of seeing the 
ship just verging on the weather side of the shoal, when he 
up helm, and stood off to leeward, as if intending to pass 
out of the cul-de-sac by the way he had entered, giving his 
pursuers the slip. This bold manoeuvre took the pirate 
admiral by surprise, and being in the vessel that was much 
the nearest to the Anne, he up helm, and was plumped on 
the shoal with strong way on him, in less than five minutes ! 
The instant the governor saw tliis, he hauled his wind and 
beat back again, passing the broadside of the ship with 
perfect impunity, her people being too much occupied with 
their own situation, to think of their guns, or of molesting 
him. 

The strange ship had run aground within half a mile of 
the spot where the twelve-pounder was planted, and that 
gun now opened on her with great effect. She lay quar- 
tering to this new enemy, and the range was no sooner 
obtained, than every shot hulled her. The governor now 
landed, and went to work seriously, first ordering the Anne 
carried through the pass, to place her beyond the reach of 
the brigs A forge happened to be in the Anne, to make 
some repairs to her iron work, and this forge, a small one 
it was true, was taken ashore, and an attempt was made to 
heat some shot in it. The shot had been put into the forge 
an hour or two before, but a fair trial was not made until 
the whole apparatus was landed. For the next hour the 
efforts of both sides were unremitted. One of the brigs 
went to the assistance of the admiral, while the other en- 
deavored to silence the gun, which was too securely placed, 
however, to mind her broadsides. One shot hulling her, 


448 


THE CRATER. 


soon drove her to leeward ; after which, all the attention 
of- the pirates was bestowed on their ship. 

The admiral, beyond all doubt, was very awkwardl}’ 
placed. He had the whole width of the shoal to leeward 
of him, could only get off by working directly in the face 
of the fire, and had gone on with seven knots’ way on his 
ship. The bottom was a soft mud ; and the colonists knew 
that nothing but anchors laid to windward, with a heavy 
strain and a good deal of lightening, would ever take that 
vessel out of her soft berth. Of this fact the pirates them- 
selves soon began to be convinced, for they were seen 
pumping out their water. As for the brigs, they were by 
no means well handled. Instead of closing with the bat- 
tery, and silencing the gun, as they might have done, they 
kept aloof, and even rendered less assistance to the ship 
than was in their power. In point of fact, they were in 
confusion, and manifested that want of order and submis- 
sion to authority, as well as self-devotion, that would have 
been shown among men in an honest service : guilt para- 
lyzed their efforts, rendering them timid and distrustful. 

After near two hours of cannonading, during which the 
colonists had done the pirates a 'good deal of damage, and 
the pirates literally had not injured the colonists at all, the 
governor was ready with his hot shot, which he had brought 
to something more than a reff heat. The gun was loaded 
with great care, and fired, after having been deliberately 
pointed by the governor himself. The ship was hulled, 
and a trifling explosion followed on board. That shot 
materially added to the confusion among the pirates, and 
It was immediately followed by another, which struck, also. 
It was now so apparent that confusion prevailed among 
the pirates, that the governor would not take the time 
necessary to put in the other hot shot, but he loaded and 
fired as fast as he could, in the ordinary way. 

In less than a quarter of an hour after the first hot shot 
was fired, smoke poured out of the admiral’s main-deck 
ports ; and, two minutes later, it was succeeded by flames. 

From that moment the result of the conflict was nc 
longer doubtful. The pirates, among whom great confu 


THE CRATER. 


449 


sion prevailed, even previously to this disaster, now lost all 
subordination, and it was soon seen that each man worked 
for himself, striving to save as much as he could of his ill- 
gotten plunder. The governor understood the state of the 
enemy, and, though prudence could scarcely justify his 
course, he determined to press him to the utmost. The 
Anne and Martha were both brought back through the 
pass, and the twelve-pounder was taken on board the 
former, there being room to fight it between her masts. 
As soon as thijs was done, the two craft bore down on the 
brigs, which were, by this time, a league to leeward of the 
burning ship, their commanders having carried them there 
to avoid the effects of the expected explosion. The admiral 
and his crew saved themselves in the boats, abandoning 
nearly all their property, and losing a good many men. 
Indeed, when the last boat left the ship, there were several 
of her people below, so far overcome by liquor as to be 
totally helpless. These men were abandoned, too, as were 
all the wounded, including Waally, who had lost an arm 
by the fire of the battery. 

Neither did the governor like the idea of passing very 
near the ship, which had now been burning fully an hour. 
Ill going to leeward, he gave her a berth, and it was well 
he did, for she blew up while the Anne and Martha, as it 
was, were considerably within a quarter of a mile of her. 
The colonists ever afterwards considered an incident con- 
nected with this explosion, as a sort of Providential mani- 
festation of the favor of Heaven. The Martha was nearest 
to the ship, at the instant of her final disaster, and very 
many fragments were thrown around her ; a few even on 
her decks. Among the last was a human body, which was 
cast a great distance in the air, and fell, like a heavy clod, 
icross the gunwale of the sloop. This proved to be the 
body of Waally, one of the arms having been cut away by 
a shot, three hours before ! Thus perished a constant and 
most wily enemy of the colony, and who had, more than 
once, brought it to the verge of destruction, by his cupidity 
and artifices. 

From this moment, the pirates thought little of anything 
29 


450 


THE CRATER. 


but of effecting their retreat, and of getting out into opeu 
water again. The governor saw this, and pressed then, 
hard. The twelve-pounder opened on the nearest brig, as 
soon as her shot would tell ; and even the Martha’s swivel 
was heard, like the bark of a cur that joins in the clamor 
when a strange dog is set upon by the pack of a village. 
The colonists on shore flew into the settlements, to let it 
be known that the enemy was retreating, when every dwell- 
ing poured out its inmates in pursuit. Even the females 
now appeared in arms ; there being no such incentive to 
jDatriotism, on occasions of the kind, as the cry that the 
battle has been won. Those whom it might have been 
hard to get wdthin the sound of a gun, a few hours before, 
now became valiant, and pressed into the van, which bore 
a very different aspect, before a retreating foe, from that 
which it presented on their advance, y' 

In losing Waally, the strangers lost the only person 
among them who had any pretension to be thought a pilot. 
He knew very little of the channels to the Reef, at the 
best, though he had been there thrice ; but now he was 
gone, no one left among them knew anything about them 
at all. Under all the circumstances, therefore, it is not 
surprising that the admiral should think more of extricating 
his two brigs from the narrow waters, than of pursuing his 
original plan of conquest. It was not difficult to find his 
way back by the road he had come ; and that road he trav- 
eled as fast as a leading breeze would carry him along it. 
But retreat, as it now appeared, was not the only difficulty 
with which this freebooter had to contend. It happened 
that no kind feeling existed between the admiral and the 
officers of the largest of the brigs. So far had their ani- ! 
mosity extended, that the admiral had deemed it expedient 
to take a large sum of money, which had fallen to the 
share of the vessel in question, out of that brig, and keep 
it on board the ship, as a guaranty that they would not run 
away with their craft. This proceeding had not strength- 
ened the bond between the parties ; and nothing had kept 
down the strife but the expectation of the large amount of 
plunder that was to be obtained from the colony. That 


THE CRATER. 


451 


hope was now disappointed ; and the whole time the two 
vessels were retiring before the Anne and the Martha, 
preparations were making on board one of the brigs to re- 
claim this ill-gotten treasure, and on board the other to re- 
tain it. By a species of freemasonry peculiar to their 
pursuits, the respective crews were aware of each other’s 
designs ; and when they issued nearly abreast out of the 
passage, into the inner bay of the Western Roads, one 
passed to the southward of the island, and the other to the 
northward ; the Anne and Martha keeping close in their 
wakes. 

As the two vessels cleared the island and got into open 
water, the struggle commenced in earnest ; the disaffected 
brig firing into the admiral. The broadside was returned, 
and the two vessels gradually neared each other, until the 
canopies of smoke which accompanied their respective 
movements became one. The combat now raged, and with 
a savage warmth, for hours ; both brigs running off the land 
under short canvas. At length the firing ceased, and the 
smoke so far cleared away as to enable the governor to 
take a look at the damages done. In this respect, there 
was little to choose; each vessel having suffered, and seem- 
ingly each about as much as the other. After consuming 
an -hour or two in repairing damages, the combat was re- 
newed ; when the two colony craft, seeing no prospects of 
its soon terminating, and being now several leagues to lee- 
ward of the group, hauled up for the roads again. The 
brigs continued their fight, always running off before the 
wind, and went out of sight, canopied by smoke, long after 
tlie reports of their guns had become inaudible. This was 
the last the governor ever saw or heard of these dangeroua 
enemies. 


452 


THE CRATER. 


CHAPTER XXIX. 

Vox populi, vox Dei. 

Venerable Axiom. 

After this unlooked-for termination of what the colo 
nists called the “ Pirate-War,” the colony enjoyed a long 
period of peace and prosperity. The whaling business 
was carried on with great success, and many connected 
with it actually got rich. Among these was the governor, 
wlio, in addition to his other means, soon found himself in 
possession of more money than he could profitably dispose 
of in that young colony. By his orders, no less than one 
hundred thousand dollars were invested in his name, in the 
United States six per cents, his friends in America being 
empowered to draw the dividends, and, after using a due 
proportion in the way of commissions, to reinvest the re- 
mainder to his credit. 

Nature did quite as much as art, in bringing on the 
colony ; the bounty of God, as the industry of man. It 
is our duty, however, to allow that the colonists did not so 
regard the matter. A great change came over their feel- 
ings, after the success of the “ Pirate-War,” inducing them 
to take a more exalted view of themselves and their con- 
dition than had been their wont. The ancient humility 
'eemed suddenly to disappear ; and in its place a vain- 
glorious estimate of -themselves and of their prowess arose 
among the people. The word “ people,” too, was in every- 
body’s month, as if the colonists themselves had made those 
lovely islands, endowed them with fertility and rendered 
them what they were now fast becoming — scenes of the 
most exquisite rural beauty, as well as granaries of abun- 
dance. By this time, the palm-tree covered more or less 
of every island ; and the orange, lime, shaddock, and other 


THE CRATER. 


453 

similar plants, filled the air with the fragrance of their 
flowers, or rendered it bright with the golden hues of their 
fruits. In short, everything adapted to the climate was 
flourishing in the plantations, and plenty reigned even in 
the humblest dwelling. 

This was a perilous condition for the healthful humility 
of human beings. Two dangers beset them ; both col- 
ored and magnified by a common tendency. One was 
that of dropping into luxurious idleness — the certain 
precursor, in such a climate, of sensual indulgences ; and 
the other was that of “ waxing fat, and kicking.” The 
tendency common to both, was to place self before God, 
and not only to believe that they merited all they received, 
but that, they actually created a good share of it. 

Of luxurious idleness, it was perhaps too soon to dread 
its worst fruits. The men and women retained too many 
of their early habits and impressions to drop easily into 
such a chasm ; on the contrary, they rather looked forward 
to producing results greater than any which had yet at- 
tended their exertions. An exaggerated view of self, how- 
ever, and an almost total forgetfulness of God, took the 
place of the colonial humility with which they had com- 
menced their career in this new region. These feelings 
were greatly heightened by three agents, that men ordina- 
rily suppose might have a very different effect — religion, 
law, and the press. 

When the Rancocus returned, a few months after the 
repulse of the pirates, she had on board of her some fifty 
emigrants ; the council still finding itself obliged to admit 
the friends of families already settled in the colony, on due 
application. Unhappily, among these emigrants were a 
printer, a lawyer, and no less than four persons who might 
be termed divines. Of the last, one was a Presbyterian, 
one a Methodist, — the third was a Baptist, and the fourth 
a Quaker. Not long after the arrival of this importation, 
its consequences became visible. The sectaries commenced 
with a thousand professions of brotherly love, and a great 
parade of Christian charity ; indeed they pretended that 
they had emigrated in order to enjoy a higher degree ot 


454 


THE CRATER. 


religious liberty than was now to be found in America, 
where men were divided into sects, thinking more of their 
distinguishing tenets than of the Being whom they pro- 
fessed to serve. Forgetting the reasons which brought 
them from home, or quite possibly carrying out the im- 
pulses which led them to resist their former neighbors, 
these men set to work, immediately, to collect followers, 
and believers after their own peculiar notions. Parson 
Horn blower, who had hitherto occupied the ground by 
himself, but who was always a good deal inclined to what 
are termed “ distinctive opinions,” buckled on his armor 
and took the field in earnest. In order that the sheep of 
one flock should not be mistaken for the sheep of another, 
great care was taken to mark each and all with the brand 
of sect. One clipped an ear, another smeared the wool 
(or drew it over the eyes) and a third, as was the case 
with Friend Stephen Dighton, the Quaker, put on an en- 
tire covering, so that his sheep might be known by their 
outward symbols, far as they could be seen. In a word, 
on those remote and sweet islands, which, basking in the 
sun and cooled by the trades, seemed designed by Pro- 
vidence to sing hymns daily and hourly to their Maker’s 
praise, the subtleties of sectarian faith smothered that 
humble submission to the divine law by trusting solely to 
the mediation, substituting in its place immaterial observ- 
ances and theories which were much more strenuously 
urged than clearly understood. The devil, in the form of 
a “ professor,” once again entered Eden ; and the Peak, 
with so much to raise the soul above the grosser strife of 
men, was soon ringing with discussions on “free grace,” 

“ immersion,” “ spiritual baptism,” , and the “ apostolical 
succession.” The birds sang as sweetly as ever, and their 
morning and evening songs hymned the praises of their 
creator as of old ; but not so was it with the morning and 
evening devotions of men.'/ These last began to pray at 
each other, and if Mr. liornblower was an exception, it 
was because his admirable liturgy did not furnish him 
with the means of making these forays into the enemy’s j 
camp. j 


THE CRATER. 


455 


Nor did the accession of law and intelligence help the 
matter much. Shortly after the lawyer made his appear- 
ance, men began to discover that they were wronged by 
their neighbors, in a hundred ways which they had never 
before discovered. Law, which had hitherto been used 
for the purposes of justice, and of justice only, now began 
to be used for those of speculation and revenge. A virtue 
was found in it that had never before been suspected of 
existing in the colony ; it being discovered that men could 
make not only very comfortable livings, but, in some cases, 
get rich, by the law ; not by its practice, but by its prac- 
tices. Now came into existence an entire new class of 
philanthropists ; men who were ever ready to lend their 
money to such of the needy as possessed property, taking 
judgment bonds, mortgages, and other innocent securities, 
which were received because the lender always acted on a 
principle of not lending without them, or had taken a 
vow, or made their wives promises ; the end of all being 
a transfer of title, by which the friendly assistant com- 
monly relieved his dupe of the future care of all his prop- 
erty. The governor soon observed that one of these 
philanthropists rarely extended his saving hand that the 
borrower did not come out as naked as the ear of the corn 
that has been through the shelter, or nothing but cob ; and 
that, too, in a sort of patent-right time. Then there were 
the laborers of the press to add to the influence of those 
of religion and the law. The press took up the cause of 
human rights, endeavoring to transfer the power of the 
state from the public departments to its own printing- 
office ; and aiming at establishing all the equality that can 
flourish when one man has a monopoly of the means of 
making his facts to suit himself, leaving his neighbors to 
get along under such circumstances as they can. But the 
private advantage secured to himself by this advocate of 
the rights of all, was the smallest part of the injury he did, 
though his own interests were never lost sight of, and 
colored all he did ; the people were soon convinced that 
they had hitherto been living under an unheard-of tyranny, 
and were invoked weekly to arouse in their might, and be 


456 


THE CRATER. 


true to themselves and their posterity. In the first placGj 
not a tenth of them had ever been consulted on the sub- 
ject of the institutions at all, but had been compelled to 
take them as they found them. Nor had the present in- 
cumbents of office been placed in power by a vote of a 
majority, the original colonists having saved those who 
came later to the island all trouble in the premises. In 
these facts was an unceasing theme of declamation and 
complaint to be found. It was surprising how little the 
people really knew of the oppression under which they 
labored, until this stranger came amongst them to en- 
lighten their understandings. Nor was it less wonderful 
how many sources of wrong he exposed, that no one had 
ever dreamed of having an existence. Although there was 
not a tax of any sort laid in the colony, not a shilling ever 
collected in the way of import duties, he boldly pronounced 
the citizens of the islands to be the most overburdened 
people in Christendom ! The taxation of England was 
nothing to it, and he did not hesitate to proclaim a general 
bankruptcy as the consequence, unless some of his own 
expedients were resorted to, in order to arrest the evil. 
Our limits will not admit of a description of the process 
by which this person demonstrated that a people who lit- 
erally contributed nothing at all, were overtaxed ; but any 
one who has paid attention to the opposing sides of a dis- 
cussion on such a subject, can readily imagine how easily 
such an apparent contradiction can be reconciled, and the 
proposition demonstrated. 

In the age of which we are writing, a majority of man- 
kind fancied that a statement made in print was far more 
likely to be true than one made orally. Then he who 
stood up in his proper person and uttered his facts on the 
responsibility of his personal character, was far less likely 
to gain credit than the anonymous scribbler, who recorded 
his lie on paper, though he made his record behind a screen, 
and half the time as much without personal identity as he 
would be found to be without personal character, were he 
actually seen and recognized. In our time, the press has 
pretty effectually cured all observant persons at least of 


THE CRATER. 


457 


giving faith to a statement merely because it is in print, 
and has become so far alive to its own great inferiority as 
publicly to talk of conventions to purify itself, and other- 
wise to do something to regain its credit ; but such was 
not the fact, even in America, forty years since. The 
theory of an unrestrained press has fully developed itself 
within the last quarter of a century, so that even the 
elderly ladies, who once said with marvelous unction, “It 
must be true, for it’s in print,” are now very apt to say, 
“ Oh ! it’s only a newspaper account ! ” The foulest pool 
has been furnished by a beneficent Providence with the 

means of cleansiim its own waters. 

* ^ 

But the “ Crater Truth -Teller ” could utter its lies, as a 
privileged publication, at the period of this narrative. 
Types still had a sanctity ; and it is surprising how much 
they deceived, and how many were their dupes. The jour- 
nal did not even take the ordinary pains to mystify its 
reader’s, and to conceal its own cupidity, as are practiced 
in communities more advanced in civilization. We dare 
say that journals are to be found in London and Paris, 
that take just as great liberties with the fact as the Crater 
Truth -Teller ; but they treat their readers with a little 
more outward respect, however much they may mislead 
them with falsehoods. Your London and Paris publics are 
not to be dealt with as if composed of credulous old wom- 
en, but require something like a plausible mystification to 
throw dust in their eyes. They have a remarkable prone- 
ness to believe that which they wish, it is true ; but beyond 
that weakness, some limits are placed to_ their faith, and 
appearances must be a good deal consulted. 

But at the crater no such precaution seemed to be nec- 
essary. It is true that the editor did use the pronoun 
“ we,” in speaking of himself ; but he took all other occa- 
sions to assert his individuality, and to use his journal dili- 
gently in its behalf. Thus, whenever he got into the law, 
his columns were devoted to publicly maintaining his own 
side of the question, although such a course was not only 
opposed to every man’s sense of propriety, but was dmectly 
i flying into the teeth of the laws of the land ; but little did 


458 


THE CRATER. 


he care for that. He was a public servant, and of fourse 
all lie did was right. To be sure, other public st^rvanta 
were in the same category, all they did being wrong ; but 
he had the means of telling his own story, and a large 
number of gaping dunces were ever ready to believe him. 
His manner of filling his larder is particularly worthy of 
being mentioned. Quite as often as once a week, his jour- | 
nal had some such elegant article as this, namely : “ Our 
esteemed friend, Peter Snooks ” — perhaps it was Peter 
Snooks, Esquire — “ has just brought us a fair specimen of 
his cocoa-nuts, which we do not hesitate in recommending 
to the housekeepers of the crater, as among the choicest 
of the group.” Of course. Squire Snooks was grateful for 
this puff, and often brought more cocoa-nuts. The same 
great supervision was extended to the bananas, the bread- 
fruit, the cucumbers, the melons, and even the squashes, 
and always with the same results to the editorial larder. 
Once, however, this worthy did get himself in a quandary 
with his use of the imperial pronoun. A mate of one of 
the vessels inflicted personal chastisement on him, for some 
impertinent comments he saw fit to make on the honest 
tar’s vessel ; and, this being matter of intense interest to 
the public mind, he went into a detail of all the evolutions 
of the combat. Other men may pull each other’s noses, 
and inflict kicks and blows, without the world’s caring a 
straw about it; but the editorial interest is too intense to 
be overlooked in this manner. A bulletin of the battle 
was published ; the editor speaking of himself always in 
the plural, out of excess of modesty, and to avoid ego- 
tism (!) in three columns which were all about himself, 
using such expressions as these: “ We now struck our 
antagonist a blow with our fist, and followed this up with 
a kick of our foot, and otherwise we made an assault on 
him that he will have reason to remember to his dying 
day.” Now, these expressions, for a time, set all the old 
women in the colony against the editor, until he went into 
an elaborate explanation, showing that his modesty was so 
painfully sensitive that he could not say I on any account, 
though he occupied three more columns of his paper in ex- 


THE CRATER. 


459 


plaining the state of our feelings. But, at first, the cry 
went forth that the battle had been of two against one ; 
and that even the simple-minded colonists set down as 
somewhat cowardly. So much for talking about we in the 
bulletin of a single combat ! 

The political effects produced by this paper, however, 
were much the most material part of its results. When- 
ever it offended and disgusted its readers by its dishonesty, 
selfishness, vulgarity, and lies — and it did this every week, 
being a hebdomadal — it recovered the ground it had lost 
by beginning to talk of “ the people ” and their rights. 
This the colonists could not withstand. All their sym- 
pathies were enlisted in behalf of him who thought so 
much of their rights ; and, at the very moment he was 
trampling on these rights, to advance his own personal 
views, and even treating them with contempt by uttering 
the trash he did, they imagined that he and his paper in 
particular, and its doctrines in general, were a sort of gift 
from Heaven to form the palladium of their previous 
liberties ! 

The great theory advanced by this editorial tyro, was, 
that a majority of any community had a right to do ms it 
pleased. The governor early saw, not only the fallacies, 
but the danger of this 'doctrine ; and he wrote several com- 
munications himself, in order to prove that it was false. 
If true, he contended it was true altogether ; and that it 
must be taken, if taken as an axiom at all, with its largest 
consequences. Now, if a majority has a right to rule, in 
this arbitrary manner, it has a right to set its dogmas above 
the commandments, and to legalize theft, murder, adultery, 
and all the other sins denounced in the twentieth chapter 
of Exodus. This was a poser to the demagogue, but he 
made an effort to get rid of it, by excepting the laws of 
God, which he allowed that even majorities were bound to 
respect. Thereupon, the governor replied that the laws of 
God were nothing but the great principles which ought to 
govern human conduct, and that his concession was an 
avowal that there was a power to which majorities should 
defer. Now, this was just as true of minorities as it was 


4G0 


THE CRAl'ER. 


of majorities, and the amount of it all was that men, in 
establishing governments, merely set up a standard of prin- 
ciples which they pledged themselves to respect ; and that 
even in the most democratical communities, all that major- 
ities could legally effect was to decide certain minor ques- 
tions which, being necessarily referred to some tribunal for 
decision, was of preference referred to them. If there was 
a power superior to the will of the majority, in the manage- 
ment of human affairs, then majorities were not supreme ; 
and it behooved the citizen to regard the last as only what 
they really are, and what they were probably designed to 
be — tribunals subject to the. control of certain just prin- 
ciples. 

Constitutions, or the fundamental law, the governor went 
on to say, were meant to be the expression of those just 
"and general principles which should control human society, 
and as such should prevail over majorities. Constitutions 
were expressly intended to defend the rights of minorities ; 
since without them, each question, or interest, might be 
settled by the majority, as it arose. It was but a truism 
to say that the oppression of the majority was the worst 
sort' of oppression ; since the parties injured not only en- 
dured the burden imposed by many, but were cut off from 
the sympathy of their kind, which can alleviate much suffer- 
ing, by the inherent character of the tyranny. 

There was a great deal of good sense, and much truth 
in what the governor wrote, on this occasion ; but of what 
avail could it prove with the ignorant and short-sighted, 
who put more trust in one honeyed phrase of the journal, 
that flourished about the “ people ” and their “ rights,” than 
in all the arguments that reason, sustained even by revela- 
tion, could offer to show the fallacies and dangers of this ' 
new doctrine. As a matter of course, the wiles of the 
demagogue were not without fruits. Although every man ; 
in the colony, either in his own person, or in that of his ; 
parent or guardian, had directly entered into the covenants 
of the fundamental law, as that law then existed, they now : 
began to quarrel with its provisions, and to advance doc- 
trines that would subvert everything as established, in 


THE CRAfER. 


461 


order to put something new and untried in its [.kce. 
Progress was the great desideratum ; and change was the 
hand-maiden of progress. A sort of “ puss in the corner ” 
game was started, which was to enable those who had no 
places to run into the seats of those who had. This is a 
favorite pursuit of man, all over the world, in monarchies 
as well as in democracies; for, after all that institutions 
can effect, there is little change in men by putting on, or 
in taking off ermine and robes, or in wearing “ republican 
simplicity,” in office or out of office ; but the demagogue is 
nothing but the courtier, pouring out his homage in the 
gutters, instead of in an antechamber ^ 

Nor did the governor run into extremes in his attempts 
to restrain the false reasoning and exaggerations of the 
demagogue and hi‘6 deluded or selfish followers. Nothing 
would be easier than to demonstrate that their notions of 
the rights of numbers was wrong, to demonstrate that were 
their theories carried out in practice, there could be, and 
would be nothing permanent or settled in human affairs ; 
yet not only did each lustrum, but each year, each month, 
each week, each hour, each minute demand its reform. 
Society must be periodically reduced to its elements, in 
order to redress grievances. The governor did not deny 
that men had their natural rights, at the very moment he 
insisted that these rights were just as much a portion of 
the minority, as of the majority. He was perfectly willing 
that equal laws should prevail, as equal laws did prevail in 
the colony, though he was not disposed to throw every- 
thing into confusion merely to satisfy a theory. For a 
long time, therefore, he opposed the designs of the new- 
school, and insisted on his vested rights, as established in 
the fundamental law, which had made him ruler for life. 
But “ it is hard to kick against the pricks.” Although 
the claim of the governor was in every sense connected 
with justice, perfectly sacred, it could not resist the throes 
of cupidity, selfishness, and envy. By this time, the news- 
paper, that palladium of liberty, had worked the minds of 
the masses to a state in which the naked pretension of 
possessing rights that were not common to everybody else 


462 


THE CRATER. 


was, to the last degree, “ tolerable and not to be endured.” 
To such a height did the fever of liberty rise, that men 
assumed a right to quarrel with the private habits of the 
governor and his family, some pronouncing him proud be- 
cause he did not neglect his teeth, as the majority did, eat 
when they ate, and otherwise presumed to be of different 
habits from those arounff him. Some even objected to 
him because he spat in his pocket^andkerchief, and did 
not blow his nose with his fingers, 

All this time, religion was running riot, as well as poli- 
tics. The next-door neighbors hated each other most 
sincerely, because they took different views of regenera- 
tion, justification, predestination and all the other subtle- 
ties of doctrine. What was remarkable, they who had the 
most clouded notions of such subjects were tn^ loudest in 
their denunciations. Unhappily, the Rev. Mr. Hornblower, 
who had possession of the ground, took a course which- had 
a tendency to aggravate instead of 'lessening this strife 
among the sects. Had he been prudent, he would have 
proclaimed louder than ever “ Christ, and him crucified ; ” 
but he made the capital mistake of going up and down, 
crying with the mob, “• the church, the church ! ” This 
kept constantly before the eyes and ears of the dissenting 
part of the population — dissenting from his opinions if not 
from an establishment — the very features that were the 
most offensive to them. By “ the church ” they did not 
understand the same divine institution as that recognized 
by Mr. Hornblow'er himseK, but surplices, and standing 
up and sitting down, and gowns, and reading prayers out 
of a book, and a great many other similar observances, 
which were deemed by most of the people relics of the 
“ scarlet woman.” It is wonderful, about what insignifi- 
cant matters men can quarrel, when they wish to fall out. 
Perhaps religion,’ under these infiuences, had quite as 
much to do with the downfall of the governor, which 
shortly after occurred, as politics, and the newspaper, and 
the new lawyer, all of which and whom did everything that 
was in their power to destroy him. 

At length the demagogues thought they had made suf* 


THE CRATER. 


463 


ficient progress to spring their mine. The journal came 
out with a proposal to call a convention, to alter and im- 
prove the fundamental law. That law contained a clause 
already pointing out the mode by which amendments were 
to be made in the constitution ; but this mode required the 
consent of the governor, of the council, and finally, of the 
people. It was a slow, deliberative process, too, one by 
which men had time to reflect on what they were doing, 
and so far protected vested rights, as to render it certain 
that no very great revolution could be effected under its 
shadow. Now, the disaffected aimed at revolution — at 
carrying out completely the game of “ puss in the corner,” 
and it became necessary to set up some new principle by 
which they could circumvent the old fundamental law. 

This was very easily accomplished in the actual state of 
the public mind ; it was only to carry out the doctrine of 
the sway of the majority to a practical result ; and this was 
so cleverly done as actually to put the balance of power in 
the hands of the minority. There is nothing new in this, 
however, as any cool-headed man may see in this enlight- 
ened republic of our own, daily examples in which the 
majority-principle works purely for the aggrandizement 
of a minority clique. It makes very little difference how 
men are ruled ; they will be cheated ; for, failing of rogues 
at head-quarters to perform that office for them, they are 
quite certain to set to work to devise some means of cheat- 
ing themselves. At the crater this last trouble was spared 
them, the opposition performing that office in the following 
ingenious manner. 

The whole colony was divided into parishes, which ex- 
ercised in themselves a few of the minor functions of gov- 
ernment. They had a limited legislative power, like the 
American town meetings. In these parishes, laws were 
passed, to require the people to vote “ yes ” or “ no,” in 
order^to ascertain whether there should, or should not be a 
convention to amend the constitution. About one fourth 
of the electors attended these primary meetings, and of the 
ten meetings which were held, in six “ yes ” prevailed by 
average majorities of about two votes in each parish. This 


464 


THE CRATER. 


was held to be demonstration of the wishes of the majority 
of the people to have a convention, though most of tl>ose 
who stayed away did so because they believed the whole 
procedure not only illegal, but dangerous. Your hungry 
demagogue, however, is not to be defeated by any scruples 
BO delicate. To work these elites of the colony went, to 
organize an election for members of the convention. At 
this election about a third of the electors appeared, the 
candidates succeeding by handsome majorities, the rest 
staying away because they believed the whole proceedings 
illegal. Thus fortified by the sacred principle of the sway 
of majorities, these representatives of a minority met in 
convention, and formed an entirely new fundamental law ; 
one, indeed, that completely subverted the old one, not 
only in fact, but in theory. In order to get rid of the gov- 
ernor to a perfect certainty, for it was known that he 
could still command more votes for the office than any 
other man in the colony, one article provided that no per- 
son should hold the office of governor, either prospectively, 
or perspectively, more than five years, consecutively. This 
placed Mr. Mark Woolston on the shelf at the next elec- 
tion. Two legislative bodies were formed, the old council 
was annihilated, and everything was done that cunning 
could devise, to cause power and influence to pass into 
new hands. This was the one great object of the whole 
procedure, and, of course, it was not neglected. 

When the new constitution was completed, it was re- 
ferred back to the people for approval. At this third ap- 
peal to the popular voice, rather less than half of all the 
electors voted, the constitution being adopted by a major- 
ity of one third of those who did. By this simple, and ex- 
quisite republican process, was the principle of the sway of 
majorities vindicated, a new fundamental law for the colony 
]>rovided, and all the old incumbents turned out of office. 
“ Silence gives consent,” cried the demagogues, who forgot 
uiey had no right to put their questions ! 

Religion had a word to say in these changes. The cir- 
cumstance that the governor was an Episcopalian reconciled 
many devout Christians to the palpable wrong that was done 


THE CRATER. 


465 


him; and it was loudly argued that a church government 
of bishops was opposed to republicanism, and consequently 
ought not to be entertained by republicans. This charming 
argument, which renders religious faith secondary to human 
institutions, instead of human institutions secondary to 
religious faith, thus completely putting the cart before the 
horse, has survived that distant revolution, and is already 
flourishing in more eastern climes. It is as near an ap- 
proach to an idolatrous worship of self, as human conceit 
has recently tolerated. 

As a matter of course, elections followed the adoption of 
the new constitution. Pennock was chosen governor for 
two years ; the new lawyer was made judge, the editor, 
secretary of state and treasurer ; and other similar changes 
were effected. All the Woolston connection were com- 
pletely laid on the self. This was not done so much by 
the electors, with whom they were still popular, as by 
means of the nominating committees. These nominating 
committes were expedients devised to place the power in 
the hands of a few, in a government of the many. The 
rule of the majority is so very sacred a thing that it is 
found necessary to regulate it by legerdemain. No good 
republican ever disputes the principle, while no sagacious 
one ever submits to it. There are various modes, how- 
ever, of defeating all “ sacred principles ” and this parti- 
cular “ sacred principle ” among the rest. The simplest is 
that of caucus nominations. The process is a singular 
illustration of the theory of a majority-government. Pri- 
mary meetings are called, at which no one is ever present, 
but the wire-pullers and their puppets. Here very fierce 
conflicts occur between the wire-pullers themselves, and 
these are frequently decided by votes as close as majorities 
of one or two. Making the whole calculation, it follows 
that nominations are usually made by about a tenth, or 
even a twentieth of the body of the electors; and this, too, 
on the supposition that they who vote actually have opinions 
of their own, as usually they have not, merely wagging 
their tongues as the wires are pulled. Now, these nomi- 
nations are conclusive, when made by the ruling party, 
30 


466 THE .'RATER. 

since there are no concerted means of opposing them. A 
man must have a flagrantly bad cliaracter not to succeed 
under a regular nomination, or he must be too honest for 
the body of the electors ; one fault being quite as likely to 
defeat him as the other. 

In this way was a great revolution effected in the colony 
of the crater. At one time, the governor thought of knock- 
ing the whole thing in the head, by the strong arm ; as he 
might have done, and would have been perfectly justified 
in doing. The Kannakas were now at his command, and, 
ill truth, a majority of the electors were with him ; but 
political jugglery held them in duress. A majority of the 
electors of the State of New York are, at this moment, op- 
posed to universal suffrage, especially as it is exercised in 
the town and village governments, but moral cowardice 
holds them in subjection. Afraid of their own shadows, 
each politician hesitates to “ bell the cat.” What is more, 
the select aristocrats and monarchists are the least bold in 
acting frankly, and in saying openly what they think ; 
leaving that office to be discharged, as it ever will be, by 
the men who — true democrats, and not canting democrats 
— willing to give the people just as much control as they 
know how to use, or which circumstances wdl allow them 
to use beneficially to themselves, do not hesitate to speak 
with the candor and manliness of their principles. These 
men call things by their right names, equally eschewing the 
absurdity of believing that nature intended rulers to de- 
scend from male to male, according to the order of primo- 
geniture, or the still greater nonsense of supposing it nec- 
essary to obtain the most thrifty plants from the hot-beds 
of the people, that they may be transplanted into the beds 
of state, reeking with the manure of the gutters. 

The governor submitted to the changes, through a love 
of peace, and ceased to be anything more than a private 
citizen, when he had so many claims to be first, and when, 
in fact, he had so long been first. No sovereign on hia 
throne, could write Gratia Dei before his titles with stricter 
conformity to truth, than Mark Woolston ; but his right 
did not preserve him from the ruthless plunder of the deu> 


THE CRATER. 


467 


agogue. To his surprise, as well as to his grief, Penuock 
was seduced by ambition, and he assumed the functions of 
the executive with quite as little visible hesitation, as the 
heir apparent succeeds to his father’s crown. 

It would be untrue to say that Mark did not feel the 
change ; but it is just to add that he felt more concern for 
the future fate of the colony, tlian he did for himself or his 
children. Nor, when he came to reflect on the matter, was 
he so much surprised that he could be supplanted in this 
w^ay, under a system in which the sway of the majority was 
so much lauded, when he did not entertain a doubt that 
considerably more than half on the colony preferred the 
old system to the new, and that the same proportion of the 
people would rather see him in the Colony House, than to 
see John Pennock in his stead. But Mark — we must call 
him the governor no longer — had watched the progress of 
events closely, and began to comprehend them. He had 
learned the great and all-important political truth, that 

THE MORE A PEOPLE ATTEMPT TO EXTEND THEIR POWER 

DIRECTLY OVER state affairs, the less they, in 

FACT, CONTROL THEM, AFTER HAVING ONCE PASSED THE 
POINT OF NAMING LAWGIVERS AS THEIR REPRESENTA- 
TIVES ; MERELY BESTOWING ON A FEW ARTFUL MANAGERS 
THE influe;nce they vainly imagine to have secured 
TO THEMSELVES. This truth should be written in letters 
of gold, at every corner of the streets and highways in a 
republic ; for truth it is, and truth those who press the 
foremost on another path will the soonest discover it to be. 
The mass may select their representatives, may know them, 
and may in a good measure so far sway them, as to keep 
them to their duties ; but when a constituency assumes to 
enact the part of executive and judiciary, they not only 
get beyond their depth, but into the mire. What can^ what 
does the best informed layman, for instance, know of the 
qualifications of this or that candidate to fill a seat on the 
bench ! He has to take another’s judgment for his guide ; 
and a popular appointment of this nature, is merely trans- 
ferring the nomination from an enlightened, and, what is 
everything, a responsible authority, to one that is un- 


468 


THE CRATER. 


avoidably at the mercy of second persons for its means of 
judging, and is as irresponsible as air. 

At one time, Mark Woolston regretted that he had 
not established an opposition paper, in order to supply an 
antidote for the bane ; but reflection satisfied him it would 
have been useless. Everything human follows its law, 
until checked by abuses that create resistance. This is true 
of the monarch, who misuses power until it becomes tyr- 
anny ; of the nobles, who combine to restrain the monarch, 
until the throes of an aristocracy-ridden country proclaim 
that it has merely changed places with the prince ; of the 
people, who wax fat and kick ! Everything human is 
abused ; and it would seem that the only period of tolerable 
condition is the transition state, when the new force is 
gathering to a head, and before the storm has time to break. 
In the mean time, the earth revolves, men are born, live 
their time, and die ; communities are formed and are dis- 
solved, dynasties appear and disappear ; good contends with 
evil, and evil still has its day ; the whole, however, ad- 
vancing slowly but unerringly towards that great consum- 
mation, which was designed from the beginning, and which 
is as certain to arrive in the end, as that the sun sets at 
night and rises in the morning. The supreme folly of 
the hour is to imagine that perfection will come before its 
stated time. 


i 


THE CRATER.' 


169 


CHAPTER XXX. 

This is thy lesson, mighty sea ! 

hlan calls the dimpled earth his own, 

The flowery vale, the golden lea ; 

And on the wild gray mountain-stone 
Claims nature’s temple for his throne; 

But where thy many voices sing 
Tlieir endless song, the deep, deep tone 
Calls back his spirit’s airy wing. 

He shrinks into himself, when God is king ! 

Lunt. 

For some months after the change of government, 
Mark Woolston was occupied in attending to the arrange- 
ment. of his affairs, preparatory to an absence of some 
length. Bridget had expressed a strong wish to visit 
America once more, and her two eldest children were now 
of an age when their education had got to be a matter of 
some solicitude. It was the intention of their father to 
send them to Pennsylvania for that purpose, when the 
proper time arrived, and to place them under the care of 
his friends there, who would gladly take the charge. Re- 
cent events probably quickened this intention, both as to 
feeling and time, for Mark was naturally much mortified at 
the turn things had taken. 

There was an obvious falling-off in the affairs of the 
colony from the time it became transcendantly free. In 
religion, the sects ever had fair-play, or ever since the arri- 
val of the parsons, and that had been running down, from 
the moment it began to run into excesses and exaggera- 
tions. As soon as a man begins to shout in religion, he 
may be pretty sure that he is “ hallooing before he is out 
of the woods.” It is true that all our feelings exhibit 
themselves, more or less, in conformity to habits and man- 
ners, but there is something profane in the idea that the 


470 


THE CRATER. 


spirit of God manifests its presence in yells and clamor, 
even when in possession of those who have not been trained 
to the more subdued deportment of reason and propriety. 
The shouting and declamatory parts of religion may be the 
evil spirits growling and yelling before they are expelled, 
but these must not be mistaken for the voice of the An- 
cient of Days. 

The morals decayed as religion obtained its false direc- 
tions. Self-righteousness, the inseparable companion of 
the quarrels of sects, took the place of humility, and thus 
became prevalent that most dangerous condition of the 
soul of man, when he imagines that he sanctifies what he 
does ; a frame of mind, by the way, that is by no means 
strange to very many who ought to be conscious of their 
unworthiness. With the morals of the colony, its prosper- 
ity, even in worldly interests, began to lose ground. The 
merchants, as usual, had behaved badly in the political 
struggle. The intense selfishness of the caste kept them 
occupied with the pursuit of gain, at the most critical mo- 
ments of the struggle, or when their influence might have 
been of use ; and when the mischief was done, and they 
began to feel its consequences, or, what to them was the 
same thing, to fancy that the low price of oil in Europe 
was owing to the change of constitution at the Crater, they 
started up in convulsed and mercenary efforts to counteract 
the evil, referring all to money, and not manifesting any 
particular notions of principles concerning the manner in 
which it was used. As the cooler heads of the minority — ■ 
perhaps we ought to say of the majority, for, oddly 
enough, the minority now actually ruled in Craterdom, by 
carrying out fully the principle of the sway of the ma- 
jority — but, as the cooler heads of the colony well un- 
derstood that nothing material was to follow from such 
spasmodic and ill-directed efforts, the merchants were not 
backed in their rising, and, as commonly happens with the 
slave, the shaking of their chains only bound them so much 
the tighter. 

At length the Rancocus returned from the voyage on 
which she had sailed just previously to the change in the 


THE CRATER. 


471 


constitution, and her owner announced his intention to go 
in her to America, the next trip, himself. His brothers, 
Heaton, Anne, their children, and, finally. Captain Betts, 
Friend Martha, and their issue, all, sooner or later, joined 
the party ; a desire to visit the low shores of the Dela- 
ware once more, uniting with the mortification of the re- 
cent changes, to induce them all to wish to see the land 
of their fathers before they died. All the oil in the colony 
was purchased by Woolston, at rather favorable prices, 
the last quotations from abroad being low : the ex-gov- 
ernor disposed of most of his movables, in order to effect 
so large an operation. He also procured a glorious col- 
lection of shells, and some other light articles of the sort, 
lining the ship as full as she could be stowed. It was 
then that the necessity of having a second vessel became 
apparent, and Betts determined to withdraw his brig from 
the fishery, and to go to America in her. The whales 
had been driven off the original fishing-ground, and the 
pursuit was no longer as profitable as it had been, three 
Jish having been taken formerly to one now ; a circum- 
stance the hierarchy of the Crater did not fail to ascribe 
to the changes in the constitution, while the journal at- 
tributed it to certain aristocratical tendencies, which as that 
paper averred, had crept into the management of the busi- 
ness. 

The vessels were loaded, the passengers disposing of as 
many of their movables as they could, and to good advan- 
tage, intending to lay in fresh supplies in Philadelphia, and 
using' the funds thus obtained to procure a freight for the 
brig. At the end of a month, both vessels were ready ; 
the different dwellings were transferred to new occupants, 
some by lease and others by sales, and all those who con- 
templated a voyage to America were assembled at the 
crater. Previously to taking leave of a place that had be- 
come endeared to him by so many associations and inter- 
ests, Mr. Woolston determined to take the Anne, hiring 
her of the government for that purpose — Governor Pen- 
nock condescendingly deciding that the public interests 
would not suffer by the arrangement — and going in her 


472 


THE CRATER. 


once more through the colony, on a tour of private, if not 
of official inspection. Bridget, Heaton, Anne, and Captain 
Betts, were of the party ; the children being left at the 
crater, in proper custody. 

. The first visit was paid to Rancocus Island. Here the 
damage done by the pirates had long been repaired ; and 
the mills, kilns, and other works, were in a state of pros- 
perous industry. The wild hogs and goats were now so 
numerous as to be a little troublesome, particularly the for- 
mer ; but a good many being shot, the inhabitants did not 
despair of successfully contending with them for the pos- 
session of the place. There were cattle, also, on this isl- 
and ; but they were still tame, the cows giving milk, and 
the oxen being used in the yoke. These were the descend- 
ants of the single pair Woolston had sent across, less than 
twelve years before, which had increased in an arithmetical 
proportion, care having been taken not to destroy any. 
They now exceeded a hundred, of whom quite half were 
cows ; and the islanders occasionally treated themselves to 
fresh beef. As cows had been brought into the colony in 
every vessel that arrived, they were now in tolerably good 
numbers, Mark Woolston himself disposing of no less than 
six when he broke up his farming establishment for a visit 
to America. There were horses, too, though not in as 
great numbers as there were cows and oxen. Boats were 
so much used, that roadsters were very little needed ; and 
this so much the less, on account of the great steadiness 
of the trades. By this time, everybody understood the 
last ; and the different channels of the group were worked 
through with almost the same facility as would have been 
the case with so many highways. Nevertheless, horses 
were to be found in the colony, and some of the husband- 
men preferred them to the horned cattle in working their 
lauds. 

A week was passed in visiting the group. Something 
like a consciousness of having ill-treated Mark was to be 
traced among the people ; and this feeling was manifested 
under a well-known law of our nature, which rendered 
those the naost vindictive and morose, who had acted ‘the 


THE CRATER. 


473 


worst. Those who had little more to accuse themselves 
of than a compliant submission to the wrong-doing of 
others, in political matters everywhere the most numerous 
class of all, received their visitors well enough, and in 
many instances they treated their guests with delicacy and 
distinction. On £he whole, however, the late governor 
derived but little pleasure from the intercourse, so much 
mouthing imbecility being blended with the expressions of 
regret and sympathy, as to cause him to mourn over the 
compliance of his fellow-creatures, more than to rejoice at 
their testimony in his own favor. 

But, notwithstanding all these errors of man, nature and 
time had done their work magnificently since the last 
“ progress ” of Woolston among the islands. The channels 
were in nearly every instance lined with trees, and the 
husbandry had assumed the aspect of an advanced civiliza- 
tion. Hedges, beautiful in their luxuriance and flowers, 
divided the fields ; and the buildings which contribute to 
the comforts of a population were to be found on every 
side. The broad j^lains of soft mud, by the aid of the 
sun, the rains, the guano, and the plough, had now been 
some years converted into meadows and arable lands ; 
and those which still lay remote from the peopled parts 
of the group, still nine tenths of its surface, were fast 
getting the character of rich pastures, where cattle, and 
horses, and hogs were allowed to roam at pleasure. As 
the cock crowed from the midst of his attendant party of 
hens and chickens, the ex-governor in passing would smile 
sadly, his thoughts reverting to the time when its pre- 
decessor raised its shrill notes on the. naked rocks of the 
Reef! 

That Reef itself had undergone more changes than any 
other spot in the colony, as the Peak had undergone fewer. 
The town by this time contained more than two hundred 
buildings, of one sort and another, and the population ex- 
ceeded five hundred souls. This was a small population 
for so many tenements ; but the children, as yet, did not 
bear a just proportion to the adults. The crater was the 
subject of what to Mark Woolstoii was a most painful law- 


474 


THE CRATER. 


suit. From the first, he had claimed that spot as his pri* 
vate property ; though he had conceded its use to the pub- 
lic, under a lease, since it was so well adapted, by natural 
formation, to be a place of refuge when invasions were 
apprehended. But the crater he had found barren, and 
had rendered fertile ; the crater had ^^en seemed to him 
to be an especial gift of Providence bestowed on him in 
his misery ; and the crater was his by possession, as well 
as by other rights, when he received strangers into his as- 
sociation. None of the older inhabitants denied this claim. 

It is the last comers who are ever the most anxious to dis- 
pute ancient rights. As they can possess none of these 
established privileges themselves, they dislike that others 
should enjoy them ; and association places no restraints on 
their cupidity. Pennock, once in the hands of “ the peo- 
ple,” was obliged to maintain their rights, or what some 
among them chose to call their rights ; and he authorized 
the attorney-general to bring an action of ejectment against 
the party in possession. Some pretty hard-faced trickery 
was attempted in the way of legislation, in order to help 
along the claim of the public ; for, if the truth must be 
said, the public is just as wont to resort to such unworthy 
means to effect its purposes as private individuals, when it 
is deemed necessary. But there was little fear of the 
“ people’s ” failing ; they made the law, and they ad- 
ministered it, through their agents ; the power being now 
so completely in their hands that it required twice the 
usual stock of human virtue to be able to say them nay, as 
had formerly been the case. God help the man whose 
rights are to be maintained against the masses, when the 
immediate and dependent nominees of those masses are to 
sit in judgment ! If the public, by any inadvertency, have 
had the weakness to select servants that are superior to 
human infirmities, and who prefer to do right rather than 
to do as their masters would have them, it is a weakness 
that experience will be sure to correct, and which will not > 
be often repeated. ^ 

The trial of this cause kept the Woolstons at the crater j 
a week longer than they would have remained. Wheal 


THE CRATER. 


475 


the cause was submitted to the jury, Mr. Attorney- General 
had a great deal to say about aristocracy and privileged 
orders, as well as about the sacred rights of the people. 
To hear him, one might have imagined that the Woolstons 
were princes, in the full possession of their hereditary 
states, and who were dangerous to the liberties of the mass, 
instead of being what they really were, citizens without 
one right more than the meanest man in the colony, and 
with even .fewer chances of maintaining their share of 
these common rights, in consequence of the prejudice, and 
jealousy, and most of all, the envy, of the majority. Wool- 
ston argued his own cause, making a clear, forcible, and 
manly appeal to the justice and good sense of the jury, in 
vindication of his claims ; which, on every legal as well as 
equitable principle, was out of all question such as every 
civilized community should have maintained. But the 
great and most powerful foe of justice, in cases of this 
sort, is SLANG ; and slang in this instance came very near 
being too much for law. The jury were divided, ten going 
for the “ people,” and two for the right ; one of the last 
being Bigelow, who was a fearless, independent fellow, and 
cared no more for the bug-bear called the “ people,” by 
the slang-whangers of politics, than he did for the Em- 
peror of Japan. 

The day after this fruitless trial, which left Mark’s claim 
in abeyance until the next court, a period of six months, 
the intended travelers repaired on board ship, and the 
brig, with her party, went to sea, under her owner, captain 
Betts, who had provided himself with a good navigator in 
the person of his mate. The Rancocus, however, crossed 
over to the Peak, and the passengers all ascended to the 
plain, to take leave of that earthly paradise. Nature had 
done so much for this place, that it had been the settled 
policy of Mark Woolston to suffer its native charms to be 
marred as little as possible. But the Peak had ever been 
deemed a sort of West-End of the Colony; and, though 
the distribution of it had been made very fairly, those who 
parted with their shares receiving very ample compensa- 
tions for them, a certain distinction became attached to the 


476 


THE CRATER. 


residence on the Peak. Some fancied it was on account 
of its climate ; some, because it was a mountain, and was 
more raised up in the world than the low islands near it; 
some because it had most edible birds, and the best figs ; 
but none of those who now coveted residences there for 
their families, or the name of residences there, would allow 
even to themselves, what was the simple fact, that the place 
received its highest distinction on account of the more dis- 
tinguished individuals who dwelt on it. At first, the name 
was given to several settlements in the group, just as the 
Manhattanese 'have their East and West Broadway ; and, 
just for the very same reasons that have made them so 
rich in Broadways, they will have ere long, first-fifth, se- 
cond-fifth, and third-fifth avenue, unless common sense 
begins to resume its almost forgotten sway among the al- 
dermen. But this demonstration in the way of names, did 
not satisfy the minor-majority, after they got into the as- 
cendant ; and a law was passed authorizing a new survey, 
and a new subdivision of the public lands on the Peak, 
among the citizens of the colony. On some pretense of 
justice, that is not very easily to be understood, those who 
had property there already were not to have shares in the 
new lottery ; a lottery, by the way, in which the prizes 
were ^out twice as large as those which had originally 
been distributed among the colonists. 

But Mark and Bridget endeavored to forget every- 
thing unpleasant in this visit to their much-loved home. 
They regarded the place as a boon from Providence, that 
demanded all their gratitude, in spite of the abuses of 
which it was the subject; and never did it seem to them 
more exquisitely beautiful, perhaps it never had been more 
perfectly lovely, than it appeared the hour they left it. 
Mark remembered it as he found it, a paradise in the 
midst of the waters, wanting only in man to erect the 
last great altar in his heart, in honor of its divine crea- 
tor. As yet, its beauties had not been much marred ; 
though the new irruption menaced them with serious in- 
juries. 

Mr. and Mrs. Woolston took leave of their friends, and 


THE CRATER. 


477 


tore themselves away from the charming scenery of the 
Peak, with heavy hearts. The Rancocus was waiting for 
them, under the lee of the island, and everybody was soon 
on board her. The sails were filled, and the ship passed 
out from among the islands, by steering south, and hauling 
up between the Peak and 'the volcano. The latter now 
seemed to be totally extinct. No more smoke arose from 
it, or had indeed risen from it, for a twelve-month. It was 
an island, and in time it might become habitable, like the 
others near it. 

Off Cape Horn the Rancocus spoke the Dragon ; Captain 
Betts and his passengers being all well. The two vessels 
saw no more of each other until the ship was coming out 
of the Bay of Rio, as the brig was going in. Notwith- 
standing this advantage, and the general supei'iority of the 
sailing of the Rancocus, such was the nature of the winds 
that the last encountered, that when she passed Cape May 
lights the brig was actually in the bay, and ahead of her ; 
this circumstance, however, afforded pleasure rather than 
anything else, and the two vessels landed their passengers 
on the wharves of Philadelphia within an hour of each 
other. 

Great was the commotion in the little town of Bristol 
at the return of all the Woolstons, who had gone off, no 
one knew exactly whither ; some saying to New Holland ; 
others to China ; and a few even to Japan. The excite- 
ment extended across the river to the little city of Bur- 
lington, and there was danger of the whole history of the 
colony’s getting into the newspapers. The colonists, how- 
ever, were still discreet, and in a week something else oc- 
curred to draw the attention of the multitude, and the un- 
expected visit was soon regarded like any other visit. 

Glad enough, notwithstanding, were the near relatives of 
Bridget and Anne, in particular, to see those two fine young 
women again. Neither appeared much more then a twelve- 
month older than when she went away. This was owing 
to the delicious, yet not enervating climate, in which both 
had lived. They were mothers, and a little more matronly 
in appearance, but none the less lovely ; their children, like 


478 


THE CRATER. 


themselves, -were objects of great interest, in their resf^c- 
tive families, and happy indeed were the households which 
received them. It in no degree lessened the satisfaction of 
any of the parties, that the travelers had all returned much 
better off in their circumstances than when they went away. 
Even the two younger Woolstons were now comfortable, 
and early announced an intention not to return to the islands. 
As for the ex-governor, he might be said to be rich ; but 
his heart was still in the colony, over the weaknesses of 
which his spirit yearned, as the indulgent parent feels for 
the failings of a backsliding child. Nevertheless, Bridget 
was persuaded to remain with her father a twelve-month 
longer than her husband, for the health of the old gen- 
tleman had become infirm, and he could not bear to part 
with his only child so soon again, after slie had once been 
i-estored to his arms. It was, therefore, decided, that Mr. 
Mark Woolston should fill the Rancocus with such articles 
as were deemed the most useful to the colony, and go back 
in that vessel, leaving his wife and children at Bristol, with 
the understanding he would return and seek them the suc- 
ceeding summer. A similar arrangement was made for 
the wife and children of Captain Betts, Friend Mar- 
tha Betts being much in the practice of regulating her con- 
duct by that of Friend Bridget Woolston. Betts sold his 
brig, and consented to go in the Rancocus as a passenger, 
having no scruples, now he had become comparatively 
wealthy, about eating with his old shipmate, and otherwise 
associating with him, though it was always as a sort of 
humble companion. 

The Heatons determined to remain in America, for a time 
at least. Mr. Heaton felt the ingratitude of the colonists 
even more keenly than his brother-in-law ; for he knew how 
much had been done for them, and how completely they had 
forgotten it all. Anne regretted the Peak, and its deli- ' 
cious climate ; but her heart was mainly concentred in her 
family, and she could not be otherwise than happy, while ! 
permitted to dwell with her husband and children. A 

^When the Rancocus sailed, therefore, she had no one on 
board her but Mark Woolston and Betts, with the ex 

-.r- ; 

fi \ 


THE CRATER. 


479 


cep\ion of liei’ proper crew. Her cargo was ot no great 
intrinsic value, though it consisted in articles much used, 
and consequently in great demand, in the colony. As 
the vessel had lain some months at Philadelphia, where 
she had been thoroughly repaired and new-coppered, she 
sailed well, and made an excellent run to Rio, nor was her 
passage bad as far as the straits of La Maire. Here she 
encountered westerly gales, and the Cape may be said to 
have been doubled in a tempest. After beating about for 
six weeks in that stormy occean, the ship finally got into 
the Pacific, and went into Valparaiso. Here Mark Wool- 
ston received very favorable olfers for most of his cargo, 
but, still feeling desirous to serve his colony, he refused 
them all, setting sail for the islands as soon as he had made 
a few repairs, and had a little refreshed his crew. 

The passages between Valparaiso and ^ the Crater had 
usually consumed about five weeks, though somewhat de- 
pendent on the state of the trades. On this occasion the 
run was rather long, it having been attempted to find a new 
course. Formerly, the vessels had fallen in with the Crater 
between Betto’s group and the Reef, which was bringing 
them somewhat to leeward, and Mr. Woolston now thought 
he would try a more southern route, and see if he could 
not make the Peak, which would not only bring him to 
windward, but which place was certainly giving him a more 
striking object to fall in with than the lower islands of the 
group. 

It was on the morning of one of the most brilliant days 
of those seas, that Captain Saunders met the ex-governor 
on the quarter-deck, as the latter appeared there for the 
first time since quitting his berth, and announced that he 
had just sent lookouts aloft to have a search for the land. 
By his reckoning they must be within twelve leagues of the 
Peak, and he was rather surprised that it was not yet visi- 
ble from the deck. Make it they must very shortly ; for 
he was quite certain of his latitude, and did not believe 
that he could be much out of the way, as respected his 
longitude. The cross-trees were next hailed, and the in- 
quiry was made if the Peak could not be seen ahead. The 


480 


THE CRATER. 


answer was, that no land was in sight, in any part of the 
ocean ! 

For several hours the ship ran down before the wind, 
and the same extraordinary vacancy existed on the waters ! 
At length an island was seen, and the news was sent down 
on deck. Towards that island the ship steered, and about 
-two in the afternoon, she came up close under its lee, and 
backed her topsail. This island was a stranger to all on 
board ! The navigators were confident they must be 
within a few leagues of the Peak, as well as of the vol- 
cano ; yet nothing could be seen of either, while here was 
an unknown island in their places ! This strange land 
was of very small dimensions, rising out of the sea about 
three hundred feet. Its extent was no great matter, half 
a mile in diameter perhaps, ancT its form nearly circular. 
A boat was lowered, and a 'party pulled towards it. 

As Mr Woolston approached this as yet strange spot, 
something in its outlines recurred to his memory. The 
boat moved a little farther north, and he beheld a solitary 
tree. Then a cry escaped him, and the whole of the ter- 
rible truth flashed on his mind. He beheld the summit of 
the Peak, and the solitary tree was that which he had him- 
self preserved as a signal. The remainder of his paradise 
had sunk beneath the ocean ! 

On landing, and examining more minutely, this awful 
catastrophe was fully confirmed. No part of Vulcan’s 
Peak remained above water but its rocky summit, and its 
venerable deposit of guano. All the rest was submerged ; 
and when soundings were made, the plain, that spot which 
had almost as much of heaven as of earth about it, accord- 
ing to the unenlightened minds of its inhabitants, was found 
to be nearly a hundred fathoms deep in the ocean ! 

It is scarcely possible to describe the sickening awe 
which eame over the party, when they had assured them- 
selves of the fatal facts by further observation. Every- 
thing, however, went to confirm the existence of the dire 
catastrophe. These internal fires had wrought a new con- 
vulsion, and the labors and hopes of years had vanished 
in a moment. The crust of the earth had again been 


THE CRATER. 


481 


broken ; and this time it was to destroy, instead of to 
create^f The lead gave fearful confirmation of the nature 
of the disaster, the soundings answering accurately to the 
known formation of the land in the neighborhood of the 
Peak. But, in the Peak itself, it was not possible to be 
mistaken : there it was in its familiar outline, just as it had 
stood in its more elevated position, when it crowned its 
charming mountain, and overlooked the whole of that en- 
chanting plain which had so lately stretched beneath. It 
might be said to resemble, in this respect, that sublime rock, 
wliich is recognized as a part of the “ everlasting hills,” in 
Cole’s series of noble landscapes that is called “ the March 
of Empire ever the same amid the changes of time, and 
civilization, and decay, there it was the apex of the Peak ; 
naked, storm-beaten, and familiar to the eye, though sur- 
rounded no longer by the many delightful objects which 
had once been seen in its neighborhood. 

Saddened, and chastened in spirit, by these proofs of 
what had befallen the colony, the j)arty returned to the 
ship. That night they had remained near the little islet ; 
next day they edged away in the direction of the place 
where the volcano had formerly risen up out of the waves. 
After running the proper distance, the ship was hove-to 
and her people sounded ; two hundred fathoms of line were 
out, but no bottom was found. Then the Rancocus bore up 
for the island which had borne her own name. The spot 
was ascertained, but the mountain had also sunk into the 
ocean. In one place, soundings were had in ten fathoms 
water, and here the vessel was anchored. Next day, when 
the ship was again got under way, the anchor brought up 
with it, a portion of the skeleton of a goat. It had doubt- 
less fallen upon the remains of such an animal, and hook- 
ing it with its fiukes thuo unexpectedly brought once more 
to the light of day, the remains of a creature that may 
have been on the very summit of the island, when the 
earthquake in which it was swallowed occurred. 

The Rancocus next shaped her course in the direction 
of the group. Soundings were struck near the western 
roads, and it was easy enough to carry the vessel towards 
31 


482 


^THE CRATER. 


what had formerly been the centre of those pleasant isles. 
The lead was kept going, and a good lookout was had for 
shoals; for, by this time, Mr. Woolston was satisfied that 
the greatest changes had occurred at the southward, as in 
the former convulsion, the group having sunk but a trifle 
compared with the Peak ; nevertheless, every person, as 
well as thing, would seem to have been engulfed. Towards 
evening, however, as the ship was feeling her way to wind- 
ward with great caution, and when the ex-governor believed 
himself to be at no great distance from the centre of the 
group, the lookouts proclaimed shoal-water, and even small 
breakers, about half a mile on their larboard beam. The 
vessel was hove-to, and a boat went to examine the place, 
Woolston and his friend Betts going in her. 

The shoal was made by the summit of the crater ; 
breakers appearing in one or two places where the hill had 
been highest. The boat met with no difficulty, however, in 
passing over the spot, merely avoiding the white water. 
When the lead was dropped into the centre of the crater, 
it took out just twenty fathoms of line. That distance, 
then, below the surface of the sea, had the crater, and its 
town, and its people sunk ! If any object had floated, as 
many must have done, it had long before drifted off in 
the currents of the ocean, leaving no traces behind to mark 
a place that had so lately been tenanted by human beings. 
The Rancocus anchored in twenty-three fathoms, it being 
thought she lay nearly over the Colony House, and for 
eight-and-forty hours the exploration was continued. The 
sites of many a familiar spot were ascertained, but nothing 
could be found on which even a spar might be anchored, to 
buoy out a lost community. 

At the end of the time mentioned, the ship bore up for 
Betto’s group. There young Ooroony was found, peace- 
fully ruling as of old. Nothing was known of the fate of 
the colonists, though surprise had been felt at not receiving 
any visits from their vessels. The intercourse had not 
been great of late,* and most of the Kannakas had come 
away. Soon after the Woolstons had left, the especial 
friends of humanity, and the almost exclusive lovers of the 


THE CRATER. 


483 


“ people ” having begun to oppress them by exacting more 
work than was usual, and forgetting to pay for it. These 
men could say but little about the condition of the colony 
beyond this fact. Not only they, but all in the group, how- 
ever, could render some account of the awful earthquake 
of the last season, which, by their descriptions, greatly ex- 
ceeded in violence anything formerly known in those re- 
gions. It was in that earthquake, doubtless, that the col- 
ony of the crater perished to a man. 

Leaving handsome and useful presents with his friend, 
young Ooroony, and putting ashore two or three Kannakas 
who were in the vessel, Woolston now sailed for Valpa- 
raiso. Here he disposed of his cargo to great advantage, 
and purchased copper in pigs at almost as great. With 
this new cargo he reached Philadelphia, after an absence 
of rather more than nine months. 

Of the colony of the crater and its fortunes, little was 
ever said among its survivors. It came into existence in a 
manner that was most extraordinary, and went out of it in 
one that was awful. Mark and Bridget, however, pon- 
dered deeply on these things ; the influence of which col- 
ored and chastened their future lives. The husband often 
went over, in his mind, all the events connected with his 
knowledge of the Beef. He would thus recall his ship- 
wreck and desolate condition when suffered first to reach 
the rocks ; the manner in which he was the instrument in 
causing vegetation to spring up in the barren places ; the 
earthquake, and the upheaving of the islands from out of 
the waters ; the arrival of his wife and other friends ; the 
Commencement and progress of the colony ; its blessings, 
so long as it pursued the right, and its curses, when it be- 
gan to pursue the wrong ; his departure, leaving it still a 
settlement surrounded with a sort of earthly^paradise, and 
his return, to find all buried beneath the ocean. Of such 
is the world aiid its much-coveted advantages. For a time 
our efforts seem to create, and to adorn, and to perfect, 
until we forget our origin and destination, substituting self 
for that divine Hand which alone can unite the elements 
of worlds as they float in gases, equally from his mysterious 


484 


THE CRATER. 


laboratory, and scatter them again into tliii air when the 
works of his hand cease to find favor in his view. 

Let those who would substitute the voice of the created 
for that of the Creator, who shout “ the people, the people,” 
instead of hymning the praises of their God, who vainly 
imagine that the masses are sufficient for all things, remem- 
ber their insignificance and tremble. They are but mites 
amid millions of other mites, that the goodness of prov- 
idence has produced for its own wise ends ; their boasted 
countries, with their vaunted climates and productions, have 
temporary possessions of but small portions of a globe that 
floats, a point, in space, following the course pointed out by 
an invisible finger, and which will one day be suddenly 
struck out of its orbit, as it was originally put there, by the 
hand that made it. Let that dread Being, then, be never 
made to act a second part in human a-flTairs, or the rebellious 
vanity of our race imagine that either numbers, or capacity, 
or success, or power in arms, is aught more than a short- 
lived gift of his beneficence, to be resumed when his pur- 
poses are accomplished. 


THE END. 



















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